The Taoiseach may have been honest about the capacity of the Cabinet.

Ireland has more workers on low pay than any other country in the OECD except for the United States. Some 23% of full-time workers earn less than two thirds of the median income. When the national minimum wage was introduced here in 2000 it was set at this mark to bring full-time workers out of low pay. Since then, that has never been met and today the minimum wage is only around half of the median income. It should be pegged at two thirds of the median income to bring about a minimum wage that has been recognised by all.

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions has just published a report showing that CEO pay in the top companies has increased by between 9% and 99% in one year. Twenty-two of the top 26 chief executive officers take home over €1 million in pay, with the highest pay reaching €8.2 million in a single year. In one company the CEO takes 212 times what the average worker earns. In recent years, Ireland has had the highest gap between the highest paid and the lowest paid of all OECD countries, which is a shocking record to have. This is not just about CEOs, but it is about high-paid workers in some industries and, unfortunately, a whole swathe of low-paid workers in others. The main thing that reduces this inequality is the relatively high level of cash transfers that we have in this country. However, even those cash transfers in tax and social welfare were not raised by the Government in the most recent budget.

Low pay means that many people in full-time work can no longer afford housing or other cost of living increases. Our cities need workers in retail, security, cleaning and hospitality. However, the bulk of workers in those sectors do not come within a mile of living and meeting the rent in our inner city areas. This is deeply unfair and socially unsustainable.

The Taoiseach is on record as stating that the cap on bankers' pay should stay in place and the Government has pledged to raise the minimum wage to €10.10 from January. Does he agree with me that we need to do much more to address this unique gap between the highest and lowest paid in the country, which makes us the worst in the OECD and outliers when compared with countries that are apparently much more progressive than we are?

I do not have those figures in front of me now, but I remember reading them in the past. I accept we have a high gap between high pay and low pay. The reason we have that is that we have a very large number of very high-paid people, particularly in the multinational sector. We have high pay in Ireland. It is not that we have low pay relative to other countries. It is that we have many people in very high-paid jobs, particularly in the multinational sector, which brings up the average.

I believe our national minimum wage is the sixth or seventh highest in the world, even adjusted for purchasing power capacity. If the pay of our public servants, teachers and civil servants is compared with other western countries, it is higher than the average. The same applies in the private sector. It is not that Ireland has low pay relative to other countries when one compares job with job.

It is the very large number of highly paid people, and especially those working in the multinational system, who distort the figures and bring up the average. Interestingly, as we are talking of statistics, Deputy Howlin will acknowledge the statistics produced by the CSO two weeks ago in the survey on income and living conditions. These figures looked at income equality and the income gap and came up with quite a different result. The survey showed that whether one uses the Gini coefficient or the other measure, income inequality is at its second lowest since records began in 2004. They are, perhaps, conflicting statistics in that the CSO says that Ireland has never been more equal, or that at least since 2004 Ireland's income inequality is at its second lowest level.

There are different ways of dealing with the gap Deputy Howlin has referred to. The Deputy has rightly pointed out that one of the ways Ireland distributes wealth is through our tax system and our social welfare system. This has an enormous redistributive effect, more so than other countries, with our relatively high taxes on those who are well paid and relatively low taxes on those who are poorly paid compared with other countries. Our tax and welfare system is the main way we deal with that gap, which after transfers makes us a very equal country relative to others.

It is true that because we have progressive taxation and a decent social welfare system, it masks the fundamental inequality, which is the gap between those who earn the highest and the vast bulk of people who are on very low incomes. It is a fact that far too many of our citizens are barely earning enough to exist. They do not earn enough to pay rent in our inner cities or in our main towns. They struggle to pay for childcare, and some people are opting out of work because the cost of childcare is greater than their take-home income. Many of them face incredible pressure even in providing transport to work. The Government must recognise this reality before we set about resolving it.

While the State can influence income by a progressive tax and social welfare system, the fundamental issue of having a decent wage rate across all sectors of work, some of which were instanced by the Taoiseach in his reply, must be set as a national objective. Would the Taoiseach agree that we need a focus on what is an acceptable living wage rather than a minimum wage, and that since the minimum wage was instituted in 2000, Ireland has fallen well behind the target of bringing the lowest paid worker up to an equivalence with middle-income earners?

In practical terms that gap is closed by our tax and welfare system-----

It is not closed.

-----and that is how we use-----

It is mitigated.

It is certainly narrowed. That gap is narrowed by our tax and welfare system. Before social transfers, tax and social welfare, there is a big gap between the best paid and the lowest paid in Ireland. After tax and welfare, it actually goes the other way and we are one of the more equal countries when it comes to-----

It is because we subsidise low wages.

-----the gap between the lowest and best paid. As I said earlier, the reason we have that gap in Ireland is not because Irish workers are worse paid than people doing the same job in England, America, France or Germany.

Many of them are.

Relatively, Ireland's pay levels are higher, and our minimum wage is the sixth highest in the world, even when one takes into account purchasing power capacity. The gap exists because there is a large number of people on very high pay, especially in the multinational sector, which distorts the figures and drives the number upwards. One could take the view that we should set a pay cap or a maximum pay level, and I am aware that some socialists argue for that. While one could do that, I am not sure that bringing people down achieves very much.

Dragging people up would be better.

The other way is through the minimum wage mechanism and the existing legislation that established the Low Pay Commission, which was brought in by Deputy Howlin's party when it shared Government with us, and which does it properly. It takes into account the views of employees through their unions, it takes into account the views of employers who must find the money to pay it in the first place, along with the views of academics. The commission then comes up with a figure.