Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State will be well aware that we have always supported the The Living Wage Technical Group's recommendations on that, which is different from what the Minister of State's Government has said is the living wage. We have always been cognisant of the problems and challenges which SMEs will face with regard to their ability to pay the living wage. For some businesses an increase is a burden which will place an initial stress on the performance but that can be temporary and the Government can assist them. We have the temporary business energy support scheme, TBESS. In August of this year we were told that less than 10% of that €1 billion budget had been spent. As regards the rest of that budget, a portion of this could be repurposed to assist the smaller and medium enterprises in the initial period of introducing the living wage. It could and should be used for what it was there for, which is to support businesses going forward.

It is within the gift of the Government to deliver such support and it is within its gift to deliver a true living wage. Low pay workers, many of whom work and are at risk of poverty as I said earlier, need to be helped especially at this time, particularly in a cost-of-living crisis.

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