Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Tóibín. I will try to respond to the points he made in sequence. I am pleased that he has recognised the problems associated with undeclared work. It is a European-wide problem and an important issue in terms of our enforcement agencies. We can make some progress at EU level through mutual learning and sharing of experiences, and the responsible bodies must work together on a cross-border, informal basis to share experiences and develop common work practices to ensure everyone is on the same page in terms of protecting some of the most vulnerable workers in our society, not just in Ireland but across the European Union. The enforcement aspect will be extremely important, and from Ireland's point of view the single point of contact will be the National Employment Rights Authority, NERA, which is considered by the European Commission to be one of the exemplars in terms of enforcement of employment legislation and regulations across the European Union.

The Deputy mentioned fiscal consolidation. The purpose of the mid-term review of Europe 2020 is to try to refocus the European Union on the jobs and growth agenda. It is timely that the Italian Presidency has decided to take that initiative, which will be very much supported by the Irish Government and Ireland in general. The Deputy will be aware that part of Prime Minister Renzi's agenda is to try to have a renewed focus on the jobs area and to ensure that while structural economic reforms remain to be achieved at European Union level, we must focus on the social Europe, the Europe that the Deputy and I understand and would like to see. There are opportunities in that regard, and the Europe 2020 mid-term review provides opportunities for a refocusing of the agenda over the coming period.

The Deputy will be aware that the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Joan Burton, essentially championed the youth guarantee proposition during Ireland's Presidency of the European Union. That is an idea the European Commission, the Council and so on found very attractive and has set up on an institutional basis. It is important that is properly resourced to ensure that we address the issues the Deputy referred to regarding youth unemployment, and that we make sure young people have the type of opportunities to which both he and I would agree they are entitled to achieve their ambitions. We need to facilitate that. We have unacceptably high levels of youth unemployment in the European Union and we want to address that.

I am glad the Deputy raised the issue of the low pay commission as it is an issue for which I will have responsibility. It is my intention to establish the low pay commission in the first instance on an administrative basis to make sure that we get it up and running in a short period of time. It is important that it is properly resourced; we will enable it to be properly resourced. I want to establish it on an interim administrative basis and then run, in parallel with that, the process to set it up on a statutory basis. It is important that the commission would report to me as Minister on an annual basis on what should be the annual rate of the national minimum wage and that it will do so in an evidence-based fashion. We have experienced situations in the past where Ministers have come into the Dáil and decided, almost unilaterally and without any real evidence, to reduce the national minimum wage rate. It is important that we approach this in an evidence-based fashion and let the low pay commission do its work. We will flesh that out shortly and at an appropriate time I will be interested to hear the views of the committee on the structure of the low pay commission. I have my own views on it. With officials I visited the United Kingdom two weeks ago to discuss the workings of its low pay commission with current members of the commission, the chair and also senior officials from the Department for Business Innovation & Skills, which is the lead department in this area in the UK.

The low pay commission has a statutory role to play in recommending the rate of the national minimum wage, but I would also like it to research other significant areas of concern. When the time is right and appropriate, I would appreciate hearing the views of the committee in this regard.