Mr. Vincent Jennings:

I was on the Low Pay Commission, so I know the methodology and how this was done. Maynooth University was asked. There was no - and I mean zero - stakeholder consultation formally done. Nobody offered to make any observations in advance, unlike most things coming from Government bodies. It was after the event. Leo Varadkar accepted the recommendation from the Low Pay Commission, which had accepted this without any interjection whatsoever from anybody in civil society.

Maynooth touched base with a couple of businesses, academics and others but nothing was done formally. There was never an offer. Every year, the Low Pay Commission always asks for people to make observations on the national minimum wage. However, on this crucial piece, the living wage is going to be around for ever and yet we are going to be stuck with and hidebound by a methodology that nobody has actually challenged or done. The fact of the matter is, the Low Pay Commission stayed outside of the terms of reference under which Maynooth operated, because while it was told to have a look at what the effect would be on foreign direct investment, it did not do that. Nowhere within its 59-page report is there any indication whatsoever that it even looked at that and you would question why that was. What was it going towards or was it concerned that this would queer or slow the thing? I do not know but the question deserves to be asked. Afterwards, I asked, on behalf of the association, about us having the living wage and what it thinks about this. It is done and dusted at that stage. The methodology was used by the academics, bearing it on international stuff, etc., but never actually contacting a single representative organisation.