Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the speakers and want to reassure Deputy Tóibín there are many decent employers too, just in case he thinks there are not. Relativity has been spoken about and the impact of relativity. Where can we get a measurement of that for accurate figures? If the committee was to propose that relativity be included, where would it find measurements? I accept the argument, but where can we measure it accurately? What had the bigger impact on your members' bottom lines; the increase to the minimum wage or the doubling of employer's PRSI? Ms McElwee mentioned putting in regional competitors as a measure. Is she suggesting that we need to consider different minimum wages for different regions, is that where she is going with that argument?

I also have questions for Ms Buckley, Mr. McNally and Mr. Cummins. Is there a role for the low pay commission in measuring the rates for joint labour committees? The rates seem to come out magically - so is there a role for getting it involved in measuring that or bringing some sort of transparency in there? The Government tells us, and the witnesses provide evidence, that tourism is now back to 2007 and 2008 occupancy levels and eating levels. When one shares a constituency with the Minister for Tourism, one hears a lot.

Given that tourism is back on the up is it not time to reward the employees, who assisted it coming back up, with some sort of a minimum wage increase? In the context of our general minimum wage discussions, the view was taken that the VAT decrease, which the witnesses both campaigned strongly for, was not passed back to employees. Can the witnesses respond to that?