Minimum wage is not enough to survive on

THE Small Firms Association, the Government and IBEC are all the same. They demand that the worker be competitive (ie, work for nothing) while remaining silent about their own fine salaries which are immune to threat.

Employers could trade more competitively if they banded together to force a reduction in fuel costs, etc, and the Government could do the same, but it won’t — it is just so easy to pass on the cost to the consumer.

If Ireland is now too expensive to trade with, then this is due to Government mishandling of trade policy during the Celtic Tiger years.