Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

I wish to make a point on a couple of amendments I will table on Report Stage to section 6. Again, the issue relates to timeframes. Line 10 on page 6 contains a reference to the Minister doing something about matters within three months of the date of receipt of a recommendation in the report. For example, he or she could declare a national minimum hourly rate of pay. We think it should be a shorter period of one month rather than three months.

The Minister currently has two options to declare a national minimum hourly rate of pay in line with what the commission recommends or in other terms. We would like to see that changed to some formulation to the effect that the rate would be improved or some indication that the Minister can only vary the rate upwards as opposed to downwards. We will table another amendment to that effect on Report Stage.