Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate the Tánaiste on his period in the office he is holding at the moment and on the substantial increases he has made to the rights and conditions of workers. We have all been informed so much by Covid and the opportunities to work differently and in better ways. This is a really significant part of that. As the Tánaiste says, it is essential that work does pay and that we are incentivising work at every turn for everybody in the labour market, irrespective of what they are earning.

I visited Dublin Chamber recently. We have unemployment at historically low figures, but the single biggest issue for them is labour market shortages and trying to encourage more people to work in this market. I also spoke with representatives the Family Business Network in Kilkenny. They informed me that approximately 173,000 businesses employ more than 1 million people in the State, which is more than the State and foreign businesses put together. They are uniquely focused on the cost of jobs and the cost of creating jobs. I might come back to that issue in a supplementary question.

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