Mr. Neil McDonnell:

To explain to Senator Gavan, I do not want to give the impression that anyone in small business is antagonistic to raising wages. I was not aware that was in the Small Firms Association, SFA, submission but I am glad he raised it. I will give the Senator an example of the difficulty it presents, and this is what is called the issue of cost transmission. The recent arrangement on contract cleaning lifts the minimum wage in that sector and gives a planned series of rises over €10. The interesting aspect is that it does not apply to workers in the hotel sector. In terms of what will happen, therefore, small contract cleaning businesses employing cleaners in hotels will lose those businesses to hotels which will employ people on a generic contract where they will do that work at minimum wage.