Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The purpose of the Bill is to provide for the necessary amendments to the National Minimum Wage Act to ensure the establishment of the Low Pay Commission on a statutory basis. It is not just about the national minimum wage. This is about low pay and dealing with the issue on a structured basis with a statutory body. The principal function of the Low Pay Commission will be, on an annual basis, to examine and make recommendations to the Minister on the national minimum wage with a view to securing that the minimum wage, where adjusted, is adjusted incrementally over time having had regard to changes in earnings, productivity, overall competitiveness and the likely impact any adjustment will have on employment and unemployment levels.

The Bill replaces the previous means by which the national minimum wage could be adjusted in the past and replaces those with the annual analysis and recommendation by the Low Pay Commission. Those means were set out in sections 11, 12 and 13 of the National Minimum Wage Act 2000, which are now repealed by section 9. Clearly, the role of the Low Pay Commission is firmly set and anchored within the national minimum wage legislation of the State, but that does not mean that the remit of the Low Pay Commission is a narrow one. It is not the case that because Sinn Féin consistently says it, that it is somehow true. Just because it does not suit the narrative of Deputy Ellis and others, it does not make it the case. This is an institutional framework to deal with the challenge of low pay. It is the most important institutional change made in this country in terms of tackling low pay for many years. I am confident that this will make a considerable impact for those living on low pay. It reflects very well on the Government in terms of our commitment to making work pay and making the institutional changes we need to make that happen. It compares very favourably indeed with the lack of action of Deputy Ellis’s party in government in Northern Ireland, which is unfortunately, a classic low pay economy.

As I previously stated, the commission is about much more than setting the rate of the national minimum wage. Section 5 also provides that the commission may be requested by the Minister to examine and report on such matters related generally to the functions of the commission under the Act. That request will be made not later than two months after the Bill is enacted and in subsequent years by the end of February each year, and will be part of that year’s work programme of the commission. It is important as well that we do not tie the hands of the commission. Priorities will change and there will be issues to which the Government of the day will need to react in a very structured way with the institutional framework we are providing. That is why I have ruled out some of the proposals made on Committee Stage in an attempt to enhance, as some would see it, some of the provisions around the criteria for making recommendations to the Low Pay Commission.

We have a good structure in place, one that will work. The way we have structured the system will allow me, and future Ministers, to ask the Low Pay Commission each year to do a range of other work to address areas about which we are all concerned and to advise the Government in a professional and expert way and, critically, in an evidence-based way about the best approaches administrations can take to address the scourge of low pay. For those reasons, I cannot accept the amendments.