Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

A rise in the minimum wage is a great idea in a perfect world but in a situation where many employers are caught tight, it is not such an ideal thought. Many employers are telling me they cannot afford it and this is something that needs to be factored in here. What will happen is that the employer will pass on the minimum wage increase to the hard-pressed public. The Government, instead, has to lower the tax and USC charge take on minimum wage workers. This will increase the take-home pay for minimum wage workers. This would at least, for once, stop hitting the employer who in some cases is going out of business.

The cost of living is a major crisis for minimum wage earners in this country at present. The struggle they have to make ends meet is shocking. With the cost of living let shamefully spiral out of control by this Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Green failed Government it has spent the past week running around. They remind me of calves left out for the first time jumping and gadding as if the crisis was only happening in the past week. This shocking out-of-touch anti-family Government has been told by me and my Independent colleagues of a crisis in the past six months. However, this greedy tax-take fuelled Government by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael - ploughing ahead with this carbon tax supported by so many on this side of the House - has done nothing but crucify those on the minimum wage and lower wage bracket in rural Ireland so that we can have Green pet projects paid for in the capital. This is nothing short of a joke - a joke, I may add, we would love to laugh at if it was not so serious.

This Government has people having to sit up in rural Ireland and ask does it pay them to work at all. They pay childcare, massive car fuel increased charges, and bills. Many employees are working simply at a loss.

The Government has got it in the neck, of course, in the past few weeks. This is why it is after waking up. Themselves and their Green friends are frantically trying to put things right, something they should have done in the past six months. Let me tell the Government that €100 off the electricity bill is an insult to the hardworking people who are struggling to keep going. An immediate halt to the carbon tax is needed here, and other further tax cuts.

See this speech in context