Dr. Donal de Buitléir:

My most direct experience is that I chaired the Civil Service performance verification group for five years. It has three union and three employer members and we had to agree on the awarding of pay increases under one of the national programmes. That is the only direct experience I have.

In terms of getting agreement between people who hold different views, I was the independent chairman of the review group on third level places in 1996, if I recall the date correctly. The question was what the number of third level places should be. The Department of Finance and the Department of Education and Skills had completely divergent views on the topic, but we managed to get agreement. Evidence takes one a long way, in that one can get agreement. If one cannot get agreement, one must deal with the matter, but I am hopeful we can do so.

We have a significant research budget. It is significant enough in the first year and if it is not sufficient, we will make this known, try to get more money and see how it goes.

As I have never been involved in wage setting, I do not have any direct experience of the matter. What will happen is that the Minister will refer specific tasks to the commission. What he has asked us to do in the first year, by 15 July, is to arrive at a figure for the national minimum wage and we will do so.

Did I miss one of the questions?