Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There is obviously a correlation, then, between joining your trade union and improving your rate of pay, which I suppose bears repeating here.

Turning to our representatives from ISME, and concerning the report of the Low Pay Commission, there is a reference on page 35 - this is a subject we have discussed before and I am not going to bounce the witnesses into addressing a quote or anything like that - to the overwhelming majority of employers not discriminating against employees under the age of 20 by deploying sub-minimum rates. Most of the organisations' members, then, are paying wage rates above the minimum rate. They are not using this section. I am puzzled, then, as to why the witnesses are in here defending this provision because it does not seem to be massively prevalent. In fact, according to the research of the Low Pay Commission, and I do not know if the witnesses will contradict it here, and Dr. Redmond may be able to come in on this point too, is it not the case that the majority of employers are not paying these sub-minimum rates and are instead paying the full national minimum rate of pay?