Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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680. To ask the Minister for Health the discussions his Department has had with suppliers or service contractors to his Department or to agencies of his Department to ensure that employees of such suppliers and contractors are paid the living wage of €11.50 per hour; the cost of implementing this wage for these employees; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1374/16]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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My Department has no direct responsibility in this matter. However, I can inform you that the Living Wage is a voluntary societal initiative centred on the social, business and economic case to ensure that, wherever it can be afforded, employers will pay a rate of pay that provides an income that is sufficient to meet an individual’s basic needs, such as housing, food, clothing, transport and healthcare. The Living Wage is voluntary and has no legislative basis and is therefore not a statutory entitlement and cannot be imposed on suppliers or contractors. It is different to the National Minimum Wage which is a statutory entitlement and has a legislative basis.