Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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896. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the cost of implementing a living wage of €11.50 for all employees directly employed or in agencies funded by her Department; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [24156/16]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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A suggested living wage of €11.50 per hour would equate to an annual salary of €22,203. This is based on a standard civil service net working week of 37 hours. The annual additional cost of introducing the suggested living wage for those civil servants in my Department currently under this threshold would be in the region of €6,500 per annum. It should be noted that the staff concerned are currently on the first point of a scale and with incremental credit their annual salary will progress past the living wage in due course.

As the information requested is not readily available in respect of the agencies under my Department's remit, I have asked the Adoption Authority of Ireland, the Ombudsman for Children's Office, the Children Detention School and the Child and Family Agency (Tusla) to furnish this information directly to the Deputy.

Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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897. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the discussions her Department has had with suppliers or service contractors to her Department or to agencies of her 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 she will make a statement on the matter. [24171/16]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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It is important that Ireland’s statutory National Minimum Wage and the Living Wage concept are not conflated. 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 by either my Department or its agencies. In the circumstances, my Department has not had discussions with suppliers or service contractors regarding the payment of the living wage to their employees.

It is different to the National Minimum Wage which is a statutory entitlement and has a legislative basis. The previous Government established the Low Pay Commission to annually assess the appropriate level of the National Minimum Wage. The national minimum hourly rate of pay increased to €9.15 per hour on January 1^stthis year following acceptance of the Low Pay Commission recommendation of July 2015 to increase the rate from €8.65 per hour. More recently, the Commission’s second report on the national minimum wage was submitted to Government on 19^thJuly last and the recommendation made by the Commission that the hourly rate for an experienced adult worker be increased by 10 cents will be considered by Government in the context of Budget 2017.

Separately, wage rates and other conditions of employment are provided for in Employment Regulation Orders for the Contract Cleaning and Security sectors. These statutory Orders came into effect on 1^stOctober 2015 and provide for minimum rates in excess of the National Minimum Wage, with €10.75 per hour payable to workers in the Security sector and €9.75 per hour payable to workers in the Contract Cleaning sector.

Statutory minimum rates of pay may also be supplemented by social transfers such as Child Benefit, Family Income Supplement or health, education or housing assistance payments where the need arises and to reflect family circumstances.