Mr. Diarmaid Smyth:

I will try to answer some of the Senator's questions but might ask Ms Pyke to contribute because she has been on the Low Pay Commission longer than I have. The Senator is correct in that the system prior to 2017 was based on factors like training and job experience. Ideally, a whole range of things would be factored into determining a person's wage. The previous system was somewhat unmanageable. It was difficult to enforce and to measure a person's experience. Blunt as it is, the easiest and simplest way to measure a person's experience, as we discussed earlier with Deputy O'Reilly, is that person's age. Typically, the older you are, the more experience you accumulate. This is my first time at this committee. If I am here in a year's time, with another year's experience, I hope I will be better. However, that is not always the case. The movement to the age-based system was a way of simplifying things. Obviously, this matter increased traction with the Private Member's Bill and with the request of the then Tánaiste, Deputy Varadkar, for the LPC to look at it. We have seen the ESRI study which showed how many people are being paid the sub-minimum youth rates. We have seen that the incidence is very low. The Low Pay Commission, on top of the ESRI report and stakeholder engagement, came to the conclusion that there was no need to maintain them. Ms Pyke might speak on what specifically has changed relative to 2017.