Mr. Mark Fielding:

I agree with the Deputy when a company can afford to pay.

I never said that they should not. I am talking about the minimum wage here and about the redistribution of wealth.

If a company is in profit then of course it should pay and of course there should be wage increases. There is nobody here saying anything to the contrary. The Deputy asked, in the context of a British representative body welcoming a 20 pence increase in the minimum wage in the UK, why we disagree with an increase. Since the year 2000 IBEC has sold us down the Suwannee in the context of the minimum wage and wage increases. We did not agree to what was happening at the time but we were not then part of social partnership, we were excluded. That is one of the reasons we lost our competitiveness - by about 40% - over those years. Big business did not give a monkey's about what small businesses were doing. It is the prerogative of large business organisations to agree with something but the SME sector is struggling to get back on our feet after seven hard years. We have so many businesses that are struggling. I agree with the Deputy's point that once businesses are profitable, they should pay employees appropriately. We all know that is wise. We are still in business because we look after our staff when we can make the money to do so. I am not saying that we will hoard all of the gains, of course not.