Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity)

One of the first protests I went on was to demand the introduction of a minimum wage.

At that stage there was no minimum wage. Bosses could pay what they liked. That campaign was won and 25 years ago a national minimum wage was introduced. Scandalously, the minimum wage included provision for legal discrimination against young workers. That inequality continues to this day. Around 15,000 young people in this country are legally paid less than the minimum wage. We have a national minimum wage of €13.50 an hour which is less than the living wage, a wage which makes possible a minimum livable standard of living. The road to that living wage is getting longer under this Government. However, bosses are allowed to pay 19-year-olds 10% less than that inadequate wage, 18-year-olds can get 20% less and 17-year-olds and younger can be paid 30% below the minimum wage, an insulting €9.45 an hour. When they go to pay for groceries, they do not get 30% off the bill. If a 19-year-old is renting, he or she cannot take 10% off the rent or get a young person's discount on petrol. It is blatant discrimination for young workers doing the same work as their colleagues.

In the Oireachtas committee, the employers' group, Irish SME Association, ISME, claimed that it is in loco parentis over young workers who, I quote, "may favour gratification before learning how to budget", that bosses are doing young workers a favour by underpaying them otherwise, they might waste the money on sweets. ISME also revealed the real reason it wants to keep subminimum wages. It said if young workers get the full minimum wage, this will have a spill-over impact on other workers' pay demands. In other words, it is about wage suppression for all workers.

Two years ago we in People Before Profit proposed a Bill to do away with this legalised super-exploitation. It passed Second Stage but with a timed amendment from the Government to delay it by a year. The excuse for the delay was that the Low Pay Commission was due to report on these subminimum wage rates. The Low Pay Commission did report, last March. It recommended that subminimum wages should be abolished. Were they then abolished? No, the can was kicked down the road again with an economic impact assessment. I asked the Minister for an update on the progress of this assessment. The reply to the parliamentary question I got on Tuesday said it will not be finished until June but that regardless of that, "the Government has agreed to defer any decision on sub-minimum youth rates of the National Minimum Wage." That is to say, the Government is going to continue with legalised super-exploitation of young people, even after the Dáil voted to end it and the Low Pay Commission recommended that it be done away with, and before the economic impact assessment commissioned by the Government has even been completed. On May Day, on International Workers' Day, will the Tánaiste please reverse course on this anti-worker agenda? Will he commit to equal pay for young workers?

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