Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

There has been a lot of talk from the Government about recognising the work of essential workers during the pandemic, that things will be different and that, for those workers who carried us through the pandemic, there will be payback. One group of workers that have not been talked about enough, but who were absolutely essential and worked throughout the pandemic, are private security workers working in our hospitals, on the buses and the Luas, and in the courts, supermarkets, the ESB, Google, nightclubs, hotels - you name it. Average pay in the sector is €11.65. There have been two delays in pay increases they were supposed to get under an employment regulation order, ERO, because the Minister did not sign off on the pay increases. The Scrooge employers in this sector are now trying, through court action, to block pay increases for these workers. I ask the Taoiseach to address the low pay plight and the failure to get pay increases for these private security workers and, indeed, to talk about increasing the living wage to increase their low pay.

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