Mr. Seán Murphy:

The No. 1 priority at the retail consultation forum facing into Budget 2015 was the employer's PRSI and revisiting of the 4.25% hike. That tells us something. The reports of the low pay commission in the UK are pretty good. It talks of the impacts, and the actual domestic economy impacts, of a minimum wage and the relativity we spoke of earlier. It states:

Minimum wage jobs account for 12% of jobs in the UK [it is a greater number there than it is here] that means in general minimum wage jobs are likely to be too large a part of the cost base for wage rises to be affordable without material increase in a firm's revenues. Such increases are likely to increase pressures that increase the pay of other workers in order to protect differentials.

I quote this because it absolutely chimes with Ireland outside the M50 where, despite all our effort and rhetoric, it is still pretty flat. As the Deputies go back to their constituencies this is surely chiming with them. My colleagues talked about employers who have taken no, or very limited salaries, out of the business for the last six years - waiting for that upturn. We are finally starting to see something of an upturn now and yet a massive instability and insecurity and dare I say it, a kick to confidence, is being created and driven by the rhetoric of Government around this matter - "Time for pay rises, time for cost increases". At the same time the Government has mandated massive and significant costs onto employers across the board. We have not had the reforms in our labour legislation which the UK has had as it introduces national minimum wage. We have far more strictures here like JLCs and far less flexibility. That is part of the reason we are challenged. Many would argue, and I would empathise, that if there is a minimum wage, why are all these sectoral agreements needed on top of them?