Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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This is a new innovation in the public policy landscape. Today I will be announcing the composition of the low pay commission. I hope that the chairman designate will have the opportunity to speak to the committee over the next while. The commission is a priority for Government in terms of our dignity at work agenda and making work pay. This year there is a budget of €500,000. We have modelled this very closely on the budget for the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council and the arrangements will be the same. It will be staffed, in an advisory capacity, by staff from the Department who will work to support the low pay commission. The Estimate breaks down as €270,000 current pay and €230,000 current non-pay. There will be significant resources, therefore, to allow it to carry out and commission research where gaps emerge. For those who have seen the terms of reference, which I distributed to the committee recently, and the heads of the Bill, the data sets that the low pay commission will use to arrive at its annual recommendation for an appropriate national minimum wage are clear. Where there are gaps, the commission will be enabled to initiate research to fill those gaps to ensure that it can arrive at a rate for the national minimum wage in an evidence-based and robust way. The work will start very soon. I expect the first meeting to take place over the next couple of weeks and to have a recommendation from the low pay commission in the summer.