Ms Patricia Callan:

I would like to respond to a couple of particular comments made. The point we were making today in terms of the minimum wage is that when sourcing workers now one can hire anyone on the minimum wage rate. Therefore, a young person will never be given a chance because the choice will always be to hire the experienced seasoned worker. This needs to be addressed. A 'young' person in this regard is someone aged up to 24 or 25 years. There are exemptions in the legislation on under-18s taking up a first job. In real terms, these are the practicalities of it. It is a barrier at this point in time, notwithstanding all of the arguments we have about it.

In terms of the casual labour issue, we are meeting this week with the high level group on business regulation which comes within the remit of the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation and is chaired by the Minister of State, Deputy Perry. We have set up a sub-group specifically to look at this issue. The Department of Social Protection is to send some people to meet the group. We are hoping that out of this will come some concrete engagements in respect of which we can come back to the committee. It is certainly an issue.