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Ireland Minimum Wage is High

Ireland has the second-highest minimum wage across the EU, at €1,724 per month, according to Eurofound. coins

Luxembourg has the highest, at €2,202, the Dublin-based EU agency said in a new survey.

Ireland’s minimum wage was raised to €10.20 an hour from January this year for people aged 20 and over.

The rate here is recommended by the Low Pay Commission to the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment.

“Decision-makers on minimum wages were faced with determining the 2021 level of minimum wages in the context of challenging economic conditions, downward pressure on wages due to higher unemployment, and great uncertainty about the economic projections for the months ahead,” said Christine Aumayr-Pintar, senior research manager with Eurofound.

NI needs re-opening plan

The Stormont Executive has been urged to engage with the hospitality sector to plan for the reopening of the industry. colinneill0221

Restaurants, cafes and bars have been closed with the exception of some takeaway services since December 24.

Ministers are set to discuss plans to reopen businesses following the latest lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus when they meet on Thursday.

However the reopenings are not expected before spring and likely to be gradual.

Hospitality Ulster chief Colin Neill said the planning with businesses should start now to avoid future lockdowns.

Hospitality lockdown to continue

Pubs, restaurants, hotels and cafes are facing shutdown for several more months as Taoiseach Micheál Martin warned a “critical mass” of the population must be vaccinated first michealmartin0520

with further Government supports then needed to “reboot” the industry.

Ireland has lost an estimated 150,000 hospitality jobs as the Level 5 pandemic control restrictions cost the €9bn industry two of its biggest annual spending events – New Year and St Valentine’s Day.

With St Patrick’s Day and Easter also set to prove a wash-out, Mr Martin admitted he could not predict when restaurants, pubs and hotels would fully reopen and stressed it would b e entirely down to vaccination roll-out.

The Irish Hotels Federation and the Restaurants Association of Ireland both warned the sector has been crippled by Covid-19 and would need support to recover. Vintners groups said their industry had been devastated b y the pandemic, with some pubs now closed for almost a full year.

Hotels will co-operate on quarantine

Elaina Fitzgerald Kane, President of the Irish Hotels Federation (IHF), said hotel owners are ready to assist the Government as much as possible in terms of implementing the elaina

new quarantine system.

While initial discussions with the government but there are no site-specific details as of yet.

There is now a total of 20 countries on the list for mandatory quarantine in hotels and the legislation for this is expected to be ready by next week.

Any individual who does not complete the two-week quarantine period faces a fine of up to €2,500 or six months in prison.

Fine Gael TD Peter Burke said work is ongoing to identify facilities in the vicinity of the airport where people can stay for the two-week period.

US apology for Shannon breach

Authorities in the US have apologised to the Government for an incident in which US military personnel breached Irish Covid-19 regulations. shannonapt

The troops stayed overnight in a Limerick hotel after landing at Shannon Airport without the legally required evidence of negative PCR tests or passenger locator forms.

The US Navy C40A aircraft arrived at Shannon Airport at 7.06pm on January 25 coming from Bahrain and carrying five crew and 48 military personnel.

They stayed overnight in a Limerick hotel before taking off for the US at 11.35am the following day.

However, Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney told Social Democrats TD Cian O'Callaghan in a parliamentary question response that the troops did not present negative PCR tests or fill out passenger locator forms as required.