Nessa Cosgrove (Labour)

The Minister is very welcome. I am delighted to support the Bill introduced by my Sinn Féin colleagues. The idea that socioeconomic disadvantage is inherited is not a new or radical idea. A 2022 report from the ESRI indicates, "Past research strongly indicates that individuals who experience poverty in childhood face an increased risk of experiencing poverty as adults." To state the absolute obvious, poverty is never the fault of a child born into poverty and it is not the choice made by a child. Socioeconomic disadvantage bears a strong resemblance to six of the nine grounds for discrimination. Generally, we accept the logic that aspects of our lives over which we exert no control should not be aspects of our lives on which we are discriminated against. On the basis of that logic alone, there is a compelling case for supporting this legislation.

We also need to recognise that people who experience discrimination on any other grounds are also likely to experience socioeconomic disadvantage and frequently multigenerational poverty. In Ireland, this is particularly evident among members of the Traveller and Roma communities.

I wish to use my time to highlight a particular aspect of discrimination relating to socioeconomic disadvantage that directly affects Members of the Dáil and Seanad and that consequently impacts on the lack of diversity we see in both, not only among Members but also among the staff. This is a topic I hope to address next week in the form of a Commencement matter and one I will be returning to in much greater detail when we deal with the National Minimum Wage (Payment of Interns) Bill 2022, which was introduced to the Seanad by my predecessor as Labour Party spokesperson on workers' rights, Marie Sherlock.Unpaid internships are a vehicle through which discrimination against those experiencing economic disadvantage is driven at high speed. Who can afford to work for one month or six months a year without any wages? Only those who already have a significant advantage, whether it is their own personal wealth or the support of a family who can afford to support an unwaged adult for a period of time. I know that since starting in the Seanad I have been approached by a number of young people or organisations acting on their behalf asking that I consider employing an unwaged intern. Working for a TD or a Senator can be very exciting and we all know that there is plenty of meaningful and valuable work we can find for an enthusiastic graduate or student to do. The same applies to unpaid interns in media, fashion and film-making. All are attractive and desirable areas within which to build a career and all of which have a deeply embedded concept and acceptance of unpaid internships. We know that an experience such as this is also likely to benefit that young person in their future career, so it is often very easy to justify. I am sure many parliamentary administrative assistants in these Chambers started their careers as unpaid interns and many have risen in the ranks to become parliamentary assistants and then continued on to become TDs. We all get that phone call asking us to consider this. When we are taking on someone as an unpaid intern, we have also to think of the people who are being excluded from consideration not just for an internship role but potentially from a career in a role that might suit them perfectly.

Unintentionally, through the use of unpaid interns we exclude people from a background of socioeconomic disadvantage and we reinforce a system which replicates itself and magnifies the normalisation of privilege. Incidentally, much of the corporate world has abandoned the practice of unpaid internships. It has recognised the potential talent being excluded from consideration. It is time for us in the Houses of the Oireachtas to do the same. Although the role of interns is not directly addressed in the Bill we are discussing today, it illustrates just how ingrained is the exclusion of those experiencing socioeconomic disadvantage and how often that exclusion is perpetrated at every level, generation after generation. I am delighted to support this Bill. I agree with my colleagues in opposition in hoping it can be pushed through sooner rather than being delayed for another 12 months.