Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

My question relates to the same subject. The Taoiseach did not mention it but did the issue of Ireland's breach of the Council of Europe's labour rights obligations come up for discussion while he was in Iceland? Thousands of people will be interested to know if it did. Approximately 34,000 workers are paid sub-minimum wage rates in this State. Half of those are young workers and apprentices comprise the other half. Many people do not know that is the case. I was talking to journalists who had no idea that beneath the age of 20, three different minimum wage rates apply and fall far short of anything that could give people a standard of living that would allow them to buy things, pay rent, go on buses and all the rest of it. The wages paid are as low as €7.91 per hour, which is 70% of the minimum wage.

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