Mr. A.J. Noonan:

I congratulate the Chairman on her appointment and wish her luck in her new role. I hope she has as much success as her predecessor, the Minister of State, Deputy Damien English.

I listened with a certain amount of amusement to the contribution of the previous delegation and the proceedings at the recent party conferences. This is the year of the sheep in China but to many in Ireland, 2015 appears to be the year of the pay rise. Rather than it being the year of increased productivity, tax equality for the self-employed or increased competitiveness, it is the year of the wage increase, for which small businesses and businesses in general are expected to pick up the tab.

I remind the committee that small businesses throughout the country do not have a representative on the low pay commission, bearing in mind that it is many small business people who will be picking up the tab. I firmly believe that the low pay commission is but a fig leaf for an increase in the minimum wage, and I have grave concerns about that. It is basically an increase in the cost of production. This is the Government reneging on its responsibility in terms of the redistribution of wealth. Businesses are not about wealth redistribution - we are about creating jobs and creating wealth for distribution. I heard the previous union speaker say that if businesses have an inability to pay they should go the Labour Court. The reason business people do not go to the Labour Court in some cases is embarrassment about their inability to pay; instead, they will make a couple of people redundant. That is what will happen on this occasion also. Some 4.7% of the population are on the minimum wage. They will be the first in line for the door. For the unemployed who are trying to get jobs, this is a missed opportunity to give them jobs. I met people from two companies last week in preparation for this meeting. One who works in the food business said that due to costs he would automate his business. The balance will move towards automation - in other words, redundancies. The other company had nobody on the minimum wage but if it went up it would have people on it, and the owner said he would be forced to make people on the higher rate redundant. As an employer I have grave concerns that this is what is going to happen. There will be another whopping increase of, I think, €1. That is €40 per employee, and for 40 employees this amounts to massive increased costs for employers. I will invite Ms Patricia Callan to go into the more detailed aspect of our presentation.