Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

They exist and those areas are being explored in the context of the current talks. I am not saying what is our position on that but we are exploring the whole registered employment agreements, REAs, scenario. They are well developed in the construction sector and have been for quite some time. We have engaged in sectoral agreements. I have also asked FÁS to study the impact of economic migration on the issues of both displacement and earnings. Some preliminary work has been done but the study is still in progress. As soon as we have some data from FÁS, we will send it to the Deputy. I note that Mr. Beggs of AIB is publishing its analysis of the matter at some stage today and I hope to study those figures.

The difficulty is that in some areas of manufacturing, agriculture and construction there may be some indicators of wages not climbing as high as others but that could be due to a number of factors. In manufacturing, for example, it could be due to some indigenous companies not participating in some aspects of it or to people deciding not to go overseas with their companies. I noticed in the past year that we have received more applications for work permits in agriculture than was the case in previous years. The argument being made is that it is increasingly difficult to get young people to seek careers in agriculture, particularly in manual work on farms. There can be a variety of factors leading to change in some sectors of the economy.

As other political representatives have mooted, one could look at whether one wants to stem the tide of migration into the country. I did not anticipate that was what Deputy Eamon Ryan was envisaging and that is why I did not go down that road. In fairness to him, he never has taken that position. That is an obvious instrument if one wanted to restrict the numbers coming in but that could create other pressures within the economy if there was not sufficient supply. Currently our migration policy very much tracks the labour market trends.

In the context of social partnership there is some exploration of the idea of some sectoral agreements, although flexibility is important on the other side of the equation, in terms of the overall cost base of the economy etc.

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