Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will not keep the House long but I add my voice in support of this motion, which is an all-party motion, although particular acknowledgement and tribute is due to Senators Power, van Turnhout and others. Like many colleagues who have already referred to it, I too was happy to meet representatives of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and to sign its petition on having a living wage of €11.45 per hour. I understand this to be a 5% increase on the 2014 figure. In its charter, ICTU notes:

A living wage affords an individual sufficient income to achieve an agreed, acceptable minimum standard of living, taking account of the need for food, clothing, heating, accommodation, transport and other essential costs. Currently, it is estimated that in order to earn a living income from full-time work - taking account of taxes and welfare - it would be necessary for a single adult to earn at least €11.45 per hour.

The living wage technical group publication also addresses family living incomes by setting out gross salary incomes per adult for a number of different family types.

To put that €11.45 in context, I will wear my other hat. I am chairman of the Leitrim County Childcare Committee. There is a crisis in child care. It is not necessarily an access or costs crisis. The crisis relates to the number of people who, encouraged by this and previous Governments, upskilled by undertaking further education and have obtained FETAC level 8 qualifications, which is graduate status. They are working in the child care sector for less than what is being asked here today. They are working for less than €11.50 an hour and, in some cases, it is as low as €10.00 and €10.50 an hour. These are graduates. These are people who have gone through the educational system as well as working to upskill themselves. This is the bedrock of the policy we have been hearing from the Minister's Cabinet colleague, Deputy Burton, over the past number of weeks when she speaks about people getting out of welfare and into work. These are people doing just that. I am singling out this particular sector to put some flesh on the argument because it is in the context of what we are talking about here. We have people who are at just about or under the figure the Irish Congress of Trade Unions believes, as I quoted earlier, is a living wage that helps people raise families and put food on the table.

I could not help but reflect, in the context of this motion, on the horrors being inflicted on the poor people of Greece. One figure in the past few days stands out. A man was quoted as saying his mother's pension had been reduced from €2,400 a month to €700 a month. We are not quite as bad as that but there is a significant cohort of people who are living below the poverty line. A case was brought to my attention of a woman who approached the Society of St. Vincent de Paul somewhere in the country looking for support to put food on the table. She had sold her television the previous week in order to do just that. I inquired if the family was in receipt of social welfare and learned this woman is doing a course and is trying to get out of the poverty trap but is finding it almost impossible to live. I did not think a person would get money for selling a television in this day and age because they are a throwaway item nowadays. That brought the situation home for me. I am sure there are many other incidents of people in such situations despite all the economic statistics which show us as having an increase in GDP, growing jobs and that there are more people at work, all of which I welcome.I am not disputing that notion and congratulate the Minister for the compassion and commitment he has brought to creating jobs since the recession hit hard. Long may he continue to do so. There is a cohort of people who find it almost impossible to live and, sadly, many children are suffering as a result.

Anybody who comes to this argument and approaches this motion could not help but be totally supportive of the initiative that has been put forward by ICTU. Within the confines and the restrictions being placed on the Government in terms of funding, surely the first people who must be helped are those at the lower end of the scale, those who need a hand up, not a hand out. I would hope that in the framing of the budget in October there will be a collective view within Cabinet that the most vulnerable in society, those who find it difficult to make ends meet, to put food on the table in this developed society, which Vincent Browne says regularly on television is one of the richest countries in the world, will be helped. It should not be happening. I am not suggesting that I or anybody in this House has a monopoly on sympathy and compassion. We all come into this and the other House in the hope that we will make life better for our citizens. Perhaps I can leave the Minister with one message, the theme of all that has been said during this debate, that behind the proposals for a living wage we urge the Government in the next budget to look at those at the lower end of society who desperately need some Government help.