Last week, the Seanad debated the Residential Tenancies (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2026, which I think is the most important legislation that has come before us so far.

Because of the Government's desire to guillotine it, we did not really have the opportunity to interrogate it fully. Rushed legislation is bad legislation. Yesterday on my local radio station, Ocean FM, Shona Sheridan, a young woman from Manorhamilton who is an HR master's student, was interviewed. She spoke about the plight of new graduates and said that those with high potential and high levels of knowledge were being run out of the country by unaffordable rents. This is a young woman who wants to stay in Ireland and wants to contribute to society and the economy but is finding it impossible to find accommodation she can afford to rent. Shona made it clear that the job opportunities are here, with multinationals and subsidiaries having their bases in Ireland, but entry-level positions will not pay the rent.

I bring this up because Shona highlighted and articulated so well what was found in the Irish Congress of Trade Unions survey, which was also released yesterday. It showed that more than half of workers in Ireland feel their level of pay does not reflect their efforts or their skills. This cannot be dismissed as working people complaining they are not paid enough. There is a real problem that wages simply are not high enough to allow people to pay the extortionate rent and mortgage rates in this country. Workers' value in the labour market has been undermined and watered down over the years. Without collective bargaining rights and increased trade union membership, this situation will continue. We need to see the value of young workers and all workers, and they need to be valued in their pay packets. We need the Government to enact the promised legislation on the directive on an adequate minimum wage. There is genuine poverty and hardship among a huge volume of workers. We are again educating our young people for the boat. If we continue to fail to address the most pressing issue we face, which is the housing shortage, then as the young woman who was on the radio yesterday said, she and her friends are being left with no alternative because there is no future for young people in this country. It is time we had a serious debate about young people and the role they play in our economy and in the country.