John Lyons (Dublin North West, Labour)
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I did some sums. I tried to equate the €350 million which has to be found through the Exchequer to implement the reduction in the VAT rate for the tourism sector and associated industries since 2011, plus the approximately €300 million or €350 million spent each year on subsidising people in work through family income supplement. A minimum of €2 billion of taxpayers' money has been spent in the past three years on subsidising work directly and indirectly.

As Mr. Michael Taft said earlier, if there were better and less costly public services, there might be €2 billion more to go towards reducing what people have to pay. It would help, in this context, if we did not have to subsidise work.

Can I ask each of the representatives for a comment on the reduction in the VAT rate? It has obviously done some good - nobody can say it has not. I have a question for Mr. John King. I read an article in The Irish Timesabout a PricewaterhouseCoopers report which stated that, by next year, Dublin hotel rates would return to pre-2007 levels. This is the very same sector we are subsidising to the tune of €350 million and the same sector which is refusing to engage in improving the working conditions and rates of pay for people who work in the sector, many of whom are in the €8.65 per hour category and who do not get a full week's work.

In the context of the point about inaction through the JLC mechanism, can the witnesses elaborate on what exactly they meant by saying the Labour Court could be guided to deal with sectors which do not engage?