Increasing the take-home pay of low-paid workers – the majority of whom are women – must be a priority in the forthcoming budget, according to the National Women's Council of Ireland.
In its just-published pre-budget submission, the NWCI also calls for a “full review” of changes to the One Parent Family Payment, in consultation with lone parents affected by the changes, as well as an extension of the free pre-school year to two years.
Changes to the OPFP, which came into force in July, have seen a reduction in the income of thousands of lone parents, though others have seen their income stay the same or increase.
"Budget 2016 will be an absolutely critical budget," said Orla O'Connor, NWCI director.
“It will serve as an indicator of the future social and economic priorities of government. It should be seen as an opportunity to set a positive agenda of inclusivity and equality,” she said.
Austerity and cuts to public spending had hit women and children worst, and “a 360-degree turn, to turn it around for women” was needed.
The main priorities of the council for the forthcoming budget are investment in childcare, investment in services to combat violence against women, and investment to ensure decent work for all to break the poverty trap in which many women find themselves.
Cap on childcare fees
It calls for an extension of the Early Childhood Care and Education scheme to two years, a cap on childcare fees for parents, with greater subsidies for low-income families, and the delivery of the promised two weeks’ paid paternity leave.
“We must change our poor track record on violence against women,” said Ms O’Connor. She said Ireland was due in coming months to sign the Council of Europe’s Istanbul Convention on Violence against Women, which will commit the State to doing all it can to eliminate such violence.
Complying with it would require a significant investment in services for women experiencing domestic violence.
“Alongside the personal and social impacts of such violence there is also an economic impact, with violence against women in Ireland estimated by Women’s Aid to cost €2.2 billion every year,” said Ms O’Connor.
Domestic violence
The submission calls for increased funding to domestic violence services, a restoration of funding to front-line services to “at least pre-recession levels”, and funding for a new study on the extent of sexual violence in Ireland.
Aileen Morrissey, national co-ordinator of the Mandate trade union, which represents bar and retail workers, said 70 per cent of her union’s 40,000 members were women.
“We have first-hand knowledge of what it’s like for a worker to be in a low-paid, precarious job where you have no idea what your earnings will be from week-to-week,” she said.
Many of these workers were on low-hour contacts where they were guaranteed only 15 hours a week, often with little notice on which 15 hours in a given week they will be required for.
They had no legal entitlement to seek longer hours, added Ms Morrissey.
The submission calls for the increase in the minimum wage as recommended by the Low Pay Commission from €8.65 per hour to €9.15 per hour, and a strengthening of the commission to reflect in-work poverty, the gender pay gap and minimum essential standards of living.
