Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

I thank the Taoiseach for his reply, which covered a lot of ground. I acknowledge that consultation is required in respect of a number of these matters but, as the Taoiseach will have seen, some of the social partners have indicated over the course of the past week that the lack of action by Government on the matters I have raised this morning could cause them to hold back from entering into new social partnership talks.

The difficulty with the minimum wage is the fact that it is not being enforced. I have drawn attention to the fact that 296 cases have been detected but only one prosecution has been brought. First, why is that the case? Second, can the Taoiseach tell me the reason the number of inspections have dropped even though the number of inspectors has increased?

Third, on the hotel workers issue, which is the most immediate one dealt with over the course of the past week, what is the position now with regard to the hotel workers? Is it intended that a new employment regulation order will be made for hotel workers or is the Taoiseach accepting that their pay will be pinned to the minimum wage? I remind him that in the case of hotel workers in many instances we are talking about people like waiters, bar staff and other skilled people working in the hotel industry whose wages were traditionally set by the joint labour committees and were not pinned to the minimum wage.

Did I understand from the end of the Taoiseach's reply that it is intended to introduce new legislation to strengthen the joint labour committee system and provide protection not only for the 25,000 hotel workers, but for the other 250,000 largely low paid workers who are covered by the JLC arrangement?

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