When it came to choosing a career in politics, I do not know if blood pressure or my front teeth were more at risk but, hopefully, neither of them are. I am sure we share this sentiment across the House. I appreciate the clarity and sincerity the Deputy brought to this debate. Being a Minister of State with responsibility for business, I know this is key for attracting inward investment and making sure we have clean, safe and reliable water, not just for personal use but also for commercial use, particularly in our…

I am very grateful to the Deputy for raising this case of Scoil Bhríde Lann Léire in Dunleer. I appreciate his consistent advocacy on behalf of this school and the town of Dunleer. The Department of Education provides a wide range of supports to all schools, DEIS and non-DEIS, to support the inclusion of all students and address barriers to students achieving their potential. Supplementing the universal supports available to all schools, the DEIS programme is a key policy initiative of the Department to address con…

Of course, I can imagine that. Everyone in this House deals with these issues every day and I have nothing but empathy and sympathy for principals, staff members, the schoolgoing children and their families and, indeed, the Deputy and his staff, who have to deal with this matter. That is why I will undertake to bring this to both the Minister, Deputy Foley, and the Minister of State, Deputy Madigan, who are absent, to make sure the case he has put forward so eloquently this evening is relayed to them in a proper an…

I am grateful to Senator Warfield for submitting this timely and important Commencement matter. Before I get into the specifics of the sub-minimum wage rate, it is important to lay out the context in which we are discussing it, with regard to the national minimum wage. We all know it has increased as part of the budget to €12.70 per hour. That will come into effect from 1 January. This represents an €1.40 increase, or 12.4%, on the current national minimum wage. This is the tenth increase to the minimum wage since …

The Senator briefly touched on a couple of issues that I could speak for much longer than a minute about. I would appreciate the chance to come back into the House to perhaps have a wider discussion. One thing I would be heartened about, parallel to this, is that in second quarter of this year, we recognised the job rates and decrease in unemployment, and 75% of people returning to work were women. That shows progress in bringing people back into the workforce. I fundamentally agree with the Senator and I would lik…

I move: That, notwithstanding anything in the Order of the Dáil of 29th March, 2023, setting out the rota in which Questions to members of the Government are to be asked, Questions for oral answer, following those set down to the Minister for Defence shall be set down to Ministers in the following temporary sequence: Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Minister for Finance Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform Minister for Transport whereupon the sequence establish…

I thank Deputy O’Reilly for the question. I think she knows my strong belief in these orders and support for them. In Ireland, there are three such mechanisms for setting wages in particular sectors, which all include flexibility to take into account the minimum wage conditions in place both now and into the future. First, an ERO sets the minimum rates of pay and conditions for workers in a specified sector. The order is drawn up by a joint labour committee through a process of voluntary collective bargaining. In t…

I will make three points on that. First, people are always open to challenge in the courts. We believe in that as a democracy and we have to accept that, even when an order is agreed by employers and employees. There will always be some who want to challenge for whatever reasons. Second, I acknowledge the rates in security are very tight but, again, it is the minimum. It is the floor and not the ceiling. We want to see the average wages in those sectors, like construction, moving so much higher that they are not tr…

We can set a new order for that sector as soon as January. It was six months in previously. I encourage employers and employees to get around the table and start working towards that. These SEOs are done with the full co-operation of employers and employees and their representative bodies. Both sides come to the table and work out something and these work very well in the large majority of cases. There is always the option for parties to take legal challenges and we have to respect that and we have to respect their…

I appreciate the opportunity to address this question. In April when the Minister, Deputy Coveney, and I met the Deputy and representatives to discuss her Bill, the representatives of various retired persons associations expressed their concerns about the protections in place for people who were already in receipt of pensions. At that meeting, I was informed that these representatives had not yet had any contact with the Department of Social Protection, which has policy responsibility for pensions policy. Therefore…

The Deputy raised a couple of points. As she knows from the previous times this matter was raised, progressing the Bill is a matter for her. The Joint Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment met in public session in January to conduct detailed scrutiny of the Bill. Following that meeting, our Department issued a detailed brief to the committee, as requested, and nothing further has come from the committee. We did not commit to producing an alternative at the meeting. I am sure the minutes and records of the m…

I will underline that this has not been kicked to the Department of Social Protection. The Deputy has now made that accusation a second time when I have clearly said that has not happened. We are dealing with a pensions issue. While it is of course under the remit of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment as the Deputy's Bill involves an amendment to the Industrial Relations Acts, when it comes to pensions, it is only sensible to engage with the Department of Social Protection, as was discussed at that …

The Deputy is misrepresenting things. That is unfair.

As the Deputy knows, we in the Department are well aware of how important the work permit system is to both businesses and Irish consumers. As the Deputy would have heard in debates earlier this morning, over 40,000 work permits were allocated last year. This year, the number will be around 38,000 for people outside the EEA. With full employment and more people at work than ever before, this obviously has huge benefits but it is also really important for businesses and consumers. In the healthcare sector, we have s…

I acknowledge that every sector of the economy is having difficulties when it comes to labour. It is very difficult to say that this should not have been allowed to happen. It is a result of the fact that we have the fastest growing economy in the EU. We have the largest number of people at work in the history of the State, and we effectively have full employment. It is the mark of a successful economy and society when people want to move there and people are needed to move there to fill jobs of all sorts, be it de…

I am committed to having those meetings when it is appropriate to do so. We have to conclude the review and look through the data. The last time this review was done, we received ten or 11 submissions. This time it has been multiples of that. That just shows where we have gone. Last year, 40,000 work permits were handed out. The number handed out the previous year was 19,000, and the number handed out prior to that - due to the Covid-19 pandemic - was 5,000. There has not been a consistent call for the last five ye…

I thank Deputy Quinlivan for asking this well-timed question. I am extremely supportive of the living wage. It is part of our commitment to making work pay and supporting workers. As the Deputy correctly stated, the low-paid workers in our society are facing the same increases in the cost of living as the rest of us. They see their energy bills rising and are faced with childcare costs, rent and mortgages. We are proud to support these workers. The first step towards reaching a living wage was the 80 cent increase …

The Government has flagged its aim to reach the living wage by 2026. There is no electoral context. It is not linked to the lifetime of the Government. We are moving steadily towards it. Will Deputy Quinlivan clarify whether it is still Sinn Féin's position that 60% of the median wage, moving towards 66%, is a living wage, as was the general consensus, or has it changed? It is important that this is done in a phased and calculated manner. It is good for workers, but it also reflects the fact that this requires seri…

On Tuesday, the Minister, Deputy Coveney, announced a €250 million investment from this Government in SMEs. This new fund will benefit 87% of rate-paying businesses across the country. This is in recognition of the need to increase the minimum wage, move towards a living wage, as well as accepting the increased costs to businesses. This grant will be paid into the bank accounts of these businesses in the first quarter of next year and this is the repurposing the Deputy is talking about. It is effective and will get…

This is, fundamentally, a good budget, one that delivers for families, households and workers across the country, and one that puts money back into people's pockets and helps them deal with the rising cost of living. Importantly, this budget also delivers for business. Without a growing economy, we would not have the resources to fund so many initiatives to improve our society, from childcare and housing, to addressing the climate emergency. I would first like to touch on the increased cost of business scheme. As t…