Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish to mention the deplorable actions that have been taken against the Wet'suwet'en First Nation in Canada. It is disgraceful to see rightful protests against an oil line on First Nations land being brutally suppressed. I urge us to have a debate in the new year on front-line environmental defenders, who are now front-line human rights defenders, given that the UN has recognised the right to a healthy environment as a human right.

My main focus in this contribution is on adding my voice in support of the need for urgent action on secretarial assistants. Others have spoken about the starting wage of €24,423 per year. That is woefully below the living wage. It takes 18 years to climb the scale.The scale does not recognise any kind of experience. It does not recognise, for example, an undergraduate degree or experience, even though we know that people come to work with us because they want to make a difference and they bring with them bring extraordinary experience from which we all benefit.

I will highlight four of the documents. I am sure that other Senators have spoken about them. One of the recommendations in the report on a family friendly and inclusive Parliament states that working for a Senator should be a family friendly role. In other words, someone should be able to perform that role and, maybe, contemplate having a family or even being able to pay rent for a place in the city centre. We must bear in mind that we are national parliamentarians here in the Seanad and that many assistants will need to be based in Dublin in order to work with us.

The motion that was passed by the previous Oireachtas was cross-party in nature. Senators on every side of the House supported the pay claim. I thank SIPTU for its briefing and for its persistent work on this matter. I also thank the workers themselves.

I wish to say something different. We know the work that these staff do. It involves research, speech writing and writing newsletters. It is not just briefing on legislation and committees, they are involved in writing legislation. These secretarial assistants support us as one half of the legislative process in the Houses of the Oireachtas. The idea that persons who support us in doing work that affects everybody in this State are not being recognised for their work but are being treated as secretarial assistants is a disgrace, especially as we approach our 100th anniversary. I am sure that we want this matter fixed before then.