David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We have yet to go through Report Stage and so on here in the Dáil. The requirement is that companies initially with 250 or more employees will carry out a wage survey and publish that, and that will be mandatory. Over time we will learn from larger companies. We have engaged with the unions and employers and everyone is in agreement that this is the way to go. The larger companies have the wherewithal and capacity to do these wage surveys, and to publish them. As we move forward we will be moving down to the smaller companies. They will learn from the larger companies as there will be a sharing of information. Eventually we will bring this to companies of 50 employees. We will not go below companies with 50 employees because one could identify individual salaries and wages of individual workers, which is something that we want to avoid.