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

Given the day that is in it, I will refer to the pandemic bonus. As well as the richly-deserved €1,000 for front-line healthcare workers, carers and those working with disability should benefit. I shout out particularly for retail workers in supermarkets. They put themselves at very serious risk and literally kept us alive during the pandemic. The Minister should consider them.

On the wider issue, workers are only getting 1% pay increases annually under a deal negotiated before inflation started to rise. Inflation is now at 5.3% and is projected to be 4% next year. In the round, workers are losing income. They are enduring pay cuts. The rate of inflation does not take into account the stratospheric increase in the cost of accommodation and rents. The Minister has not said a word about private sector workers or that part of my question which urged him to engage with the Minister for Finance on their pay situation.

See this speech in context