Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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3. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the reason previous commitments made by the Government on workers’ rights issues are not being honoured; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22002/25]

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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The Government made commitments on introducing the living wage, on enhancing paid sick leave entitlements, on abolishing the subminimum rates of youth pay, on increasing the minimum annual remuneration for employment permits and on pension auto-enrolment. The Government has reneged on all of these progressive measures. I know the Minister will say that these are just delayed but the word used is "postponement". Without concrete timeframes, workers fear that "delay" really means "deny".

Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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The Government is committed to promoting positive working conditions in Ireland and ensuring access to high quality jobs. However, it is also important to maintain a regulatory environment to allow businesses to remain viable and indeed to thrive. The programme for Government outlines a strong, forward-looking enterprise and fiscal framework, prioritising economic and employment growth. The Deputy will be aware that extensive improvements to workers' rights have been implemented in recent years, including new legislation on tips and gratuities, introducing the right to request remote work, as well as a new public holiday to celebration of St. Brigid’s Day, legislating for employer-paid statutory sick leave, banning zero-hour contracts, enhancing the protection of employees facing collective redundancies due to insolvency, as well as substantial increases in the national minimum wage. Between 2020 and 2025, the minimum wage has increased from €10.10 to €13.50, representing a nominal increase of 33.7%. The Employment Permits Act 2024 updated the employment permit system, introducing a new seasonal employment permit, which is being piloted this year. This year will also see the expansion of the regime to reduce the gender pay gap.

The Employment (Contractual Retirement Ages) Bill 2025 was published on 1 April 2025 and successfully completed Second Stage in the Dáil on Tuesday, 8 April 2025. The Bill, once enacted, will deliver a new employment right allowing, but in no way compelling, an employee to stay in employment until the State pension age of 66. The Sectoral Employment Order (Construction Sector) 2024 comes into effect on 1 August 2025 to reflect higher rates of pay for craft and general constructions workers. Pay will increase by 3.4% in August 2025 and again by 3.2% in August 2026.

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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What I wanted was a firm commitment that the onslaught on ordinary workers would be ended. The Minister of State has not provided me with that. Workers on the minimum wage are looking forward to the living wage, as was committed to. When they hear, in the past week, a wage of €430,000 talked about for a housing tsar to replace the housing Minister, it just does not sit right with people who are in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis. The workers here did not cause the global uncertainty and they cannot be made scapegoats for Government failures. The Government cannot use the uncertainty about tariffs as an excuse to row back on promises to workers. Backtracking on the minimum wage commitments does not make economic sense. The sectors that rely heavily on the minimum wage workers are, by and large, not exporters but rather trade domestically.

Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I appreciate where the Deputy is coming from on the issue she has raised. However, Government is very conscious of the cost of doing business with the increases in the minimum wage over the past number of years. Since 2022 we have seen a 32% increase up to the current rate of €13.50. However, Government is committed to continuing to increase the minimum wage but over a longer period. We sought approval, which was granted, to extend the living wage out to 2029. Once the report of the Low Pay Commission comes before us in July, we will take the recommendations on board.

This Government is committed to ensuring that we have protection for workers. They deserve fair wages. The previous Government and Fine Gael introduced statutory sick pay leave. This was the first of its kind to protect workers on leave. It will be maintained at its current rate of five days. Further to that, illness benefit will kick in on the sixth day. That will provide additional protection. As I said in my earlier contribution, we have committed to protecting workers through many pieces of legislation, as I referred to earlier, and we will continue to support workers while also striking a balance to ensure that businesses remain viable.

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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Going after workers in these sectors will not address our international competitiveness, nor will it help sectors on the front line to deal with the impact of tariffs. All it will do is leave ordinary workers worse off in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis. We have one of the highest rates of low pay in the EU, with one in five workers being low paid. This figure has remained relatively unchanged after decades of broken promises from Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. Yesterday, the ESRI published research it undertook on behalf of the Low Pay Commission. The findings of this research show that the percentage of minimum wage jobs being advertised is growing. In 2024, 15% of all hourly paid job vacancies were for minimum-wage jobs. There is a huge variation in the incidence of minimum wage employment across the State. In Dublin, approximately 7% of jobs advertised were for minimum wage workers. In Donegal, the figure was 20%. This means that in real terms, workers in Donegal and the west earn less.

This obviously has a knock-on effect across the regional economy. The Government's failure to introduce a living wage leaves low-paid workers extremely vulnerable. There are many ways to support businesses but this is not one of them. We are in a race to the bottom here.

Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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To clarify, this Government is committed to the introduction of a living wage. That will happen over an extended period. Again, we are committed to taking the recommendations of the Low Pay Commission on board once we receive its report. That will inform the discussions in preparation for the budget later this year.

Our Department takes the conditions of workers very seriously. We are guided by evidence. Our decisions are based on facts. We have engaged with the ESRI and the Irish Government Economic and Evaluation Service, IGEES, on detailed research with key stakeholders. We know that across some of the vulnerable sectors in hospitality, food services and retail, there are real cost pressures in respect of labour, the regulatory burden and energy costs. We want to protect the viability of these businesses and the livelihoods of those who are employed in them. These sectors account for more than 70% of all jobs throughout the country. We need to protect them and ensure that is done in a very responsible manner.