Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy will notice from the heads, the public commentary and the interventions I have made in recent times about the low pay commission that it will look at related matters. There is a range of different areas the low pay commission could potentially examine. I have asked the commission to focus exclusively over the next short period of time on the next rate of the national minimum wage. It is an important job and the commission has been given a tight timeframe in which to do it. However, the commission will be asked to look at other areas of the economy that may be synonymous with low pay, carrying out evidence based research into that and, indeed, making recommendations to the Government. For the next short period of time, however, it will focus exclusively on the task at hand, which is to recommend the rate for the national minimum wage.

The Deputy made a point about asking the low pay commission essentially to set the rate. It is important that the Government should always have a view on where the rate of the national minimum wage should go. We will ask the low pay commission to carry out its work in an evidence based way, and this is a timely opportunity for it to do that. To be frank, there would be a constitutional issue if it were the case that the low pay commission were acting at large, as it were, and simply making a recommendation without any parliamentary oversight.

We have seen the attitude of the courts in recent years to various industrial relations legislative measures that were considered to be unconstitutional due to the lack of parliamentary oversight.

The Oireachtas should have a view on what the rate of the national minimum wage should be. Ultimately, it will be a decision for the Minister of the day, me in this case, to bring to the Cabinet and to the Oireachtas, and everybody here should have a view on it. We are asking the low pay commission to do a very important job. It is closely modelled on the UK experience, which has worked very well and has had significant buy-in from trade unions, employers and civil society organisations, which have confidence in the UK Low Pay Commission to carry out its work in a dutiful, open, transparent and evidence-based manner.

In addition, we wish to ensure that the low pay commission is sufficiently well equipped and sufficiently protected in legislation to ensure that if and when the next recession hits the first target will not be those who are on low pay, and that a Government does not decide simply to train its guns on people who are on low pay and merely existing on the minimum wage. Unfortunately, that happened in recent times and I have no wish to see it happen again. We will now have a statutory organisation dealing with this in an evidence-based way on an annual basis.

In terms of the membership of the low pay commission, I am satisfied with its composition, as is the Government. We went through a detailed, open and transparent process with the public appointments system. There were over 150 applications. The committee will be familiar with the names of the members, which have been circulated and published. These are people in whom I have every confidence. They have a track record in representing employees and employers and a strong track record in civil society. I do not know if any of the members of the low pay commission has ever worked on the minimum wage - I do not believe Deputy Calleary can say that with any great confidence either; nobody can - or whatever their other experiences might be, but I am confident that we have selected the right people through a public process to assist the Government in this very important work.