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21 August 2019

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Fine Gael must stop denying ordinary people the pay rise they have earned

"What have Fine Gael done to make your life easier? Under their watch the costs of childcare and rent have hit record highs, and living costs sit among the highest in the developed world." - Pearse Doherty TD

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) last week announced that Ireland has the third highest rate of low pay in the 36-member OECD area; with a staggering 23% of people - almost a quarter of workers in the State - underpaid by international standards.


The government may react with dismay, if at all, to this news, but this isn’t new information. 


For the past five years Ireland has been right near the top of the OECD’s table of State’s that allow their citizens to be completely underpaid, but Fine Gael, of course, won’t be found wanting when their pals in privilege need a handout.


Many of the banks that the government bailed out ten years ago enjoy a Corporation Tax holiday, billionaire property investors - including the biggest landlord in Ireland - don’t pay a penny in tax on the rent they collect, and the insurance industry has been allowed to fleece families and small businesses with extortionate premiums.


So why are you not allowed a pay rise? Where is the government when hundreds of thousands of workers without a living wage need a hand?


What have Fine Gael done to make your life easier? Under their watch the costs of childcare and rent have hit record highs, and living costs sit among the highest in the developed world.

Simply put, workers in Ireland are owed a pay rise. They have earned a pay rise, and its long past time they got the break they deserve.

Sinn Féin is at the forefront of demanding a living wage for every worker in the State - in 2019 this means legislating for a minimum of €12.30 per hour.

It is entirely within the government’s grasp to give people the pay rise they have earned, and which they need to cope with the ridiculous living costs of a Fine Gael-led economy.

Budget 2020 will be decided in October and with the stroke of a pen the government could do right by the hundreds of thousands of citizens they’ve abandoned. It is time they followed Sinn Féin’s lead and stood up for ordinary people.

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