Catherine Ardagh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for being present in the House. I agree with all the sentiments that my colleagues have expressed. I was very proud to be elected to Dublin City Council in 2014, having run in 2009. I was doing the work of a councillor for many years without being an elected councillor. I enjoyed the work and did it with pride.

Being a public representative and being elected to the local authority is a full-time job but it is not just a full-time job. It is very much a vocation. I grew up in household similar to that of the Minister, where our hall door was open 365 days a year. As soon as I could read and write, I was taking notes for my father for his clinics. We all took on board his job and tried to relieve him of some of that pressure. He was self-employed, just like Senator Ned O'Sullivan, and made a great many sacrifices in terms of his business so that he could enter public life on a vocational basis.

We have discussed the concept of a living wage and for those full-time councillors and for those who make sacrifices, we have to look at it, not just for other members of our community but for councillors as well. Councillors need to have a living wage. They need to be able to pay a mortgage, have a car loan and live a life. At present, a great many councillors are not doing so. The idea of increasing the basic wage from a meagre €16,000 to a little less meagre €23,000 is not unreal. I really hope the Minister pushes this because it is not a massive concession to make, I think it is a fair concession and if the Minister could do it under the umbrella of a living wage, that is how it should be approached.