2026-05-12

I move: That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to amend the National Minimum Wage Act 2000 to provide for apprentices and young workers to be paid at least the National Minimum Wage. I will share time with Deputy Boyd Barrett. I am glad to be introducing this Bill. It is a Bill to end the super-exploitation of young workers and apprentices. We introduced a similar Bill in the last Dáil to abolish sub-minimum wage rates for workers aged under 20. At the time, the Government claimed to be looking into abolishing these super-low rates of pay. A young worker can be paid as little as €9.91 an hour, which is €4.24 less than the national minimum wage. Of course, in reality, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have done nothing of the sort. They have ignored the recommendation of the Low Pay Commission and the vote of this Dáil to do away with these sub-minimum wage rates. They are doubling down on shafting young people on pay just like they are shafting them on housing and the cost of living. Research by the ESRI has shown that the percentage of workers on these super-low and super-exploitative rates of pay has doubled since 2020. The national minimum wage has gone up, although it is still entirely inadequate. The result is that greedy employers are using sub-minimum wage rates for young people as a loophole to get out of paying even that inadequate minimum wage. We have gone from 20% of young workers being paid sub-minimum rates in 2020 to 30% now, a massive jump of about 30,000 young people. The justifications used by bosses for this are outrageous. I had to listen to some of them in the committee that deals with this area. ISME, the Irish SME Association, has claimed that exploiting young people in this way " is of greater long-run benefit and importance for poorer social classes where education is their way out of lower-skilled employments." It also claimed that paying young workers the national minimum wage might cause them to "favour gratification". This is the type of attitude towards young people we are dealing with. It is like something out of the Dark Ages. What is also out of the Dark Ages are the levels of pay being paid to apprentices. First-year craft apprentices are being paid €7.67 an hour, which is €6.48 less than the national minimum wage. That is disgraceful. Their union, Connect, says that apprentices now usually start in their 20s rather than their teens. It says the average apprentice will have at least one child to support and that 60% are renting. They have rent and mortgages to pay. They also have to pay for their own tools, which can cost €1,000 or more in some cases. They often have to relocate around the country and pay course fees as well. How are they meant to survive on less than €8 an hour? It is an absolute joke. It is also proof that the Government is not serious about fixing the housing crisis. It should be doing everything in its power to attract young workers to take up apprenticeships rather than legalising this super-exploitation.

To follow on from Deputy Murphy's point, one of the biggest obstacles to solving the housing crisis and the chronic deficits in infrastructure in this country is the lack of skilled tradespeople. We are making it difficult for young people to qualify in these areas by allowing these abysmally low rates for apprentices, particularly in the first and second years of their apprenticeships. These rates are just over €7 and just over €11 respectively, both of which are below the minimum wage. This means that apprentices are dropping out, often to work in fast food chains. They are not doing this because they want to but because the pay levels are so low. It also sends the message to our young people, which many of them are unfortunately acting on, that we do not really value their work at all. They are leaving. Huge numbers of people who want to work in the area of construction and to take on these trades are just leaving the country, even if they do qualify, because they do not feel valued. It is absolutely inexplicable that we expect apprentices to accept this. The average age of an apprentice is 23. Many of them have to pay rent and have children, relationships and lives but, in their first year, they are expected to live on about half of a living wage and less than the minimum wage. It is inexplicable. There are also lower rates of social protection for younger people. We are sending the message that we do not care and that we do not value our young people. It is no wonder that many of them are leaving the country. This is a minimal step that says young people, including those doing apprenticeships, should not be paid less than the minimum wage. The minimum wage should be a legal right and entitlement.

Is the Bill opposed?

It is not opposed.

I ask one of the Deputies to propose that Second Stage be taken in Private Members' time.

I move: "That the Bill be taken in Private Members' time."