Dr. Peter Rigney:

This is the case. In an ideal situation, where the State sets a wage, those representing the sellers of labour and those representing the buyers of labour come together in a process and thrash out this argument, and an institution of the State decides on the figure. That is not the case in these thresholds. We hope that there would be a section in this legislation stating that what was to be €30,000 is set with reference to the average wage for full-time employees, which is as stated in the submission. There would have to be a transitional provision to take up the slack to cover the years where this was neglected and not brought up, which in our view is an argument for having it in primary legislation.

The other argument we make in respect of primary legislation rather than statutory instruments is that this is not the Shannon navigation by-laws. This is a vital part of society and the labour market that, if it is not handled properly, will have people whipping up anti-foreigner sentiment in the community. The more of it that is in primary legislation where it can be debated by elected Members of the Oireachtas, the better. It may be inconvenient for the administrators but in an area like this, that is something they have to accept as being a civic price that is necessary to be paid.