Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

We welcome any targeted interventions that will improve conditions and the situation for struggling families and households but it is simply not enough. There are families and households that had sufficient income last year who now require better, more urgent State intervention to support. As we see in Northern Ireland, the free school books scheme could make a real difference, as could reforms to the school transport system, which has many discrepancies.

We in the Labour Party have been standing in solidarity with the most hard-pressed, including section 39 workers and members of the Irish Wheelchair Association and its staff, who have not seen a pay rise in 14 years. This group needs additional supports to deal with the cost-of-living crisis and they need a pay rise. Ireland needs a pay rise generally. People need more money in their pockets at the end of the week in order that they can meet rising costs for many basic commodities, including housing. Will the Minister engage with section 39 organisations to ensure that their staff get a pay rise?

Many of them have been doing much front-line work through the pandemic and continue to do so now but yet, they simply are not earning enough to meet the rising costs we are seeing as we come into the back-to-school season.

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