Ms Mary Rose Burke:

I will take the points the Deputy has made and I will ask Mr. McGibney to comment on some of them in more depth. With specific reference to the living wage, Dublin Chamber of Commerce is not an employer body but we have 1,300 firms which employ more than 300,000 people. We take the view that the living wage is a concept around a weekly income and is not linked to the number of hours worked. The relationship between employer and employee is based on a promise for productivity for a certain rate.

We wish to guard against any confusion between the minimum wage, which is the floor under any employment relationship, and a living wage, which concerns income not related to productivity or the number of hours worked. There is a minimum wage commission so I will not comment any further on that. We support the work of the minimum wage commission.