Gerald Nash (Labour) | Oireachtas source

The National Minimum Wage (Low Pay Commission) Act 2015 makes it clear that there is essentially one annual opportunity to do this. The reason that we set up the commission in the first place was to take the politics out of setting of the national minimum wage and to make sure that work always pays. The reality is - and 150,000 of the lowest paid workers in Ireland know this from the harsh experience - that when the latest recession hit, the first victims of Fianna Fáil were those on the national minimum wage. By reducing the national minimum wage by €1 an hour, it did not create one single job or save one single business. Under the legislation, the Low Pay Commission gets one opportunity a year and the Minister gets one opportunity a year to make an order in respect of the setting of the rate of the national minimum wage. The commission report this year made no reference whatsoever to deferral; it understood and accepted that the Government may need to review. A review is different from a deferral. The Minister does not have the capacity in law to make a deferral. In essence this is a postponement of any increase to the national minimum wage during the next 13 months or so. The lowest paid workers in Ireland, who are in the firing line should there be a crash-out Brexit, will be most adversely affected because they are on low incomes and they will be impacted by high energy prices, food prices. They will bear the brunt of a crash-out Brexit because the Minister will not allow for an increase in the national minimum wage until at least the time she receives the next annual report from the commission, which will be mid-July 2020 and, therefore, no increase can be expected until 2021. This is not mere semantics. It is very clear in law. The Minister failed to answer the questions put to her last night by my colleague, Deputy Willie Penrose, and did not use the opportunity to respond to his questions. It is disgraceful that a statement would be laid before the Houses, essentially in the dark of night, just a day after the Budget Statement laying out the reason the Minister would, as she said "defer" an increase in the minimum wage. In reality, this is a postponement. It is time that the Minister fronted up and was honest with low paid workers in this country. It is extraordinary that massive packages can be provided to farmers - and I can understand their difficulty in facing the potential of a no-deal Brexit - but it does not seem that the Fine Gael Party cares a jot about the lowest paid workers in this country as evidenced by the sleight of hand relating to the national minimum wage.