Workers' Party says boom only benefits the select few

THE Workers' Party has demanded a minimum wage of £4.50 an hour. "So far the economic boom has been for the select few," Mr John Dunne, the party's candidate in Dublin North West, said yesterday.

He added that the designated growth areas of the economy, services and tourism, were notorious for low wages and casual employment, where it was common practice to pay workers, especially women and young people, "insulting" wages of £2 and £2.50 an hour.

"This practice has been effectively condoned by the outgoing administration and its predecessor, neither of whom made any attempt to include the disadvantaged sections of Irish society in the brave new world of the Celtic Tiger."

At a press conference in Dublin, Mr Dunne said that in the last tax year 270,000 PAYE workers were so badly paid they fell below their tax threshold. "Their days were not lit up by the Rainbow Coalition. Instead, they were invited to share in the news that GNP is growing at 7 per cent and profits and executive salaries went through the roof."

He said his party was insisting that a take home pay of £150 for a 40 hour week was the very minimum that an employee should expect in 1997. "Unless this is introduced and enforced rigorously, then no employer should be eligible for state grants or employment subsidies.

The party's candidate in Dublin West, Mr Tombs Mac Giolla, said research had shown that Ireland had become a low pay economy, with 23 per cent of workers earning less than two thirds of the average wage.