Ms Maeve McElwee:

They were in a pro-union environment. Perhaps I should have mentioned how it is enshrined in our unfair dismissals legislation that, if it is found that someone was dismissed on the basis of trade union activity, he or she will get two years’ remuneration plus reinstatement. There are significant penalties in such a situation.

I agree with the Deputy that the adequate minimum wage directive applies to all businesses and workers, so there is no challenge in that respect, as the transposition will show. We have mechanisms in place to examine adequate minimum wages and consider how they are applying. Ireland will always have a national competence around addressing what that adequate minimum wage should be within the confines of our economy.

We would be supportive of reform of some of the joint labour committee system in terms of, for example, sectoral bargaining, but it is important to note some of the reasons for the joint labour committees not working well. Small businesses compete with much larger ones, and a 12% increase in the national wage minimum wage in a small retail business has a disproportionate impact versus a very large retailer, which also severely feels the impact of the rise, because of the relative impacts throughout the business. Nevertheless, to try to put everything into one joint labour committee, from the smallest microenterprises to the largest enterprises, presents challenges. It is in this context we have seen some of the impacts of the joint labour committees. Even within sectoral bargaining, we need to be careful about how the sector bargains and what the unintended consequences might be. We need to consider how we go about these steps within the framework, examine the plan and move forward carefully.