Garret Ahearn (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I, too, welcome the pupils from the school and the distinguished guests from Wisconsin. They are in very good company with Councillor Michael "Moegie" Maher. They will certainly enjoy their stay. Regardless of how long they stay in Galway, it will definitely be memorable with Moegie – that is for sure. I wish them well on their trip.

This is Deputy Richmond's first time in the Seanad as Minister of State, at least while I have been present. I officially congratulate him on his new role as Minister of State in the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment and look forward to working with him.

As the Minister of State said in his contribution, we spoke about this matter at the committee meeting yesterday along with Senator Crowe. We had a good, detailed discussion. The measure under discussion is essentially good news for workers in the sector. It is protecting their pay – a minimum rate of pay. Many subjects were mentioned yesterday. I stated we have to remember the rate of pay is a minimum rate. Anyone with an understanding of the construction sector will know that many working in it at the moment are paid at a rate far higher than the one the Minister of State is introducing. For several reasons, a construction job is a high-skilled job. There is difficulty in getting employment in the sector at the moment, so many in construction have to pay high wages to get and retain good people. As in all sectors, there is competition between companies to get good staff. From my experience, the construction sector is not like other areas of the workforce, including the hospitality sector, where workers can be exploited more.

This order is about protecting workers' rights. I stated yesterday that the current Government has made very many changes in recent years. The Minister of State's Department has made many changes to protect workers' rights, whether in respect of sick pay legislation, which the committee discussed in great detail, a new public holiday, requesting remote working, redundancy during the pandemic and better protections for workers. Everything we are trying to do and everything the former Minister, now the Taoiseach, tried to do was to improve workers' rights.

This is good news today and it is very welcome. We support it on this side of the House. I thank the Minister of State for bringing the matter to the House.