Living Wage will be introduced over a number of years to avoid job losses or cut hours - Varadkar

The introduction of a new living wage will be phased in over a number of years amid concerns that a faster introduction could lead to workers having their hours cut or pay frozen, Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise Leo Varadkar has said.

The Low Pay Commission submitted a living wage report to Mr Varadkar at the end of March this year, along with an accompanying research report from NUI Maynooth.

The living wage in Ireland is €12.90 per hour, according to a group of researchers, academics and social justice groups, known as the Living Wage Technical Group.

This is €2.40 higher than the national minimum wage, which stands at €10.50 per hour.

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Mr Varadkar said it would be “a couple of years” before Ireland has achieved what is set out in the report. He said he wanted to move towards the higher wage as quickly as possible “but not in a way that has unintended consequences”.

He said the Government would shortly set out a multiyear roadmap on the issue.

“I think it’s acknowledged unanimously by the Low Pay Commission, which includes union reps and academics, that if you were to do it in one year, or two, you could actually end up having people with pay freezes or lay-offs or businesses closing and absolutely nobody wants that. So we need to get it right.”

The Tánaiste was speaking after the Republic’s labour force broke the 2.5 million barrier for the first time in the State’s history in the opening three months of 2022, according to the CSO.

“We have reached our target today of 2.5m people at work in Ireland, but we’re not going to rest on our laurels and we’re certainly not going to engage in self-congratulation. We need to make sure that those jobs are being created all over the country.”

Separately, the Tánaiste apologised to citizens who are waiting for their passport application to be processed amid delays.

He said passport renewals might soon be offered online only and that there were ways to ensure better communication between gardaí and the Passport Office to quickly authenticate applications are being looked at.

He said between 30% to 40% of calls to his constituency office are now related to passports.

“I totally acknowledge that there is a big problem here and again, I want to apologise to anyone who has been inconvenienced by the delay in getting a passport. We are running into real difficulties with first time passports because of the fact that photographs have to be authenticated.”

He said the online only system for renewals could help with delays. He said the forms used to apply for passports might also be improved.

Meanwhile, the Dáil has heard that people are losing “thousands and thousands” of euros across the State because of “chaos” in the Passport Service.

Sinn Féin TD Rose Conway-Walsh said problems with the service needed to be fixed as people were missing out on holidays as they couldn’t secure a passport in time. The Mayo TD was speaking as statements were being heard on passport services on Thursday evening. Her party colleague, Wicklow TD John Brady, spoke of a man who contacted his office “in a terrible state” and said he had attempted to contact the Passport Office “over 600 times by phone over two days in the last week”.

Fianna Fáil TD Jennifer Murnane O’Connor said her office had been “inundated” with calls and emails “as has every TD’s office” in relation to passports. The Carlow-Kilkenny TD said she had a case two weeks ago where “half the family went on holidays and the other half couldn’t because two of the kids didn’t have their passport”.

Fine Gael TD Neale Richmond said he was “utterly exasperated” with the situation in the Passport Service. The Dublin Rathdown TD said every single TD and senator, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, members of An Garda Síochána and the Passport Office were “utterly sick of dealing with a system that is broken”.

Social Democrats TD Gary Gannon said TD’s offices were now becoming “an extension of the Passport Service”. The Dublin Central TD said politicians were not just talking about people missing out on holidays but also individuals not able to change their Visa or access social welfare payments because they couldn’t get a passport for a child.

Minister of State for European Affairs Thomas Byrne said the Passport Service was currently processing 25,000 applications per week, and that there was a “continuous stream of new applications every single day”.

He said 1.4 million applications were due to be received this year, which had dropped slightly from previous estimates of 1.7m. The Meath East TD said in 2015 the Passport Service had issued 650,000 passports and that figure would be reached at the end of next month. He said there had been an extra 340 staff recruited to Passport Service since last June.