Michael McNamara (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Acting Chair.

I thank People Before Profit for bringing forward this Bill. It is something that was brought to my attention by Ennis youth group when I met members across the road in Buswell's. There was a time when people aged under 18 worked for pocket money. It was very much brought to my attention people aged under 18 are now working to try to save money to pay for accommodation if and when they go to college.

The monetary pressures on people under 18 are much greater now than they were. I suppose monetary pressures on families generally are. Those who are just working to try to save money to go to college are perhaps the lucky ones. There are many who are working to try to contribute to their families because of the cost-of-living increases, in particular the cost of accommodation that families are enduring. Some families are lucky enough to own a family home at a mortgage rate that is set and affordable or to be in local authority accommodation which is affordable, but there are many others for whom accommodation is a pressure for the entire family. It might come as a great comfort to the Deputies across from me for me to say that I would not necessarily share their ideology. However, in many respects I share their concern that, as a society, we are regressing to where we were 100 years ago, when everybody in a family was out working to try to sustain the family and keep a roof over their heads. That is very worrying. It is a manifestation of the failure of Government, not just this Government, and it would be unfair to blame this Government, but of successive governments to deal with the housing and accommodation crisis. We are really regressing as a society in a variety of ways. It is having impacts on many sectors that could not be foreseen. It is driving hostilities in communities around resources and around immigration. It is having a huge impact. The grouping I met did not say they were the lucky ones but they spoke about having to work and save up to pay for accommodation. In a way, that would make them quite lucky.

I am a farmer and I have occasionally hired casual labour. More often than not it is young men. They probably do more work than I do and are prepared to do more work than I or indeed than the Minister of State or anybody on the Opposition benches might be capable of. I have always felt they should be fairly paid for that, notwithstanding their age. We need to examine this. Allowing the matter to go to Committee Stage would not pre-empt the Low Pay Commission in its work. The Low Pay Commission reports annually, albeit on different issues. I accept that. There is no reason the two could not operate in tandem. Has any effort been made by the Government to get the Low Pay Commission to bring forward its report? Is it possible for it to do so? It is an issue that deserves to be looked at. The place to do that, since we are a parliamentary democracy, is in committee. This is an issue which would be very usefully teased out by a committee. I welcome the legislation. It is important this Dáil be afforded an opportunity to look at it on Committee Stage and I will be supporting it on that basis.

I thank the Acting Chair for the leeway afforded me to speak on this matter.

See this speech in context