Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

Professor Drumm has issued a clarification to those people in this regard.

It is important to reiterate the absolute necessity of having clarity on the minimum wage. Changes to the minimum wage, if any, will be done in the context of proposals that will come from the Labour Court. They are currently with the Labour Court and I am not in a position to make any adjudication until that matter comes to my desk. I must, therefore, be independent in making any determination on it. However, EROs and REAs have caused a slight mix-up in the media recently. That legislation is coming to this House today whereby an inability to pay clause will be introduced by the Government for consideration here. As the Deputy is aware, there is already an inability to pay clause in the minimum wage legislation, but from what I can ascertain it has never been used. This is being introduced in the context of representations that have been made by Members of this House and others, whereby an agreement has been made between employers and employees to reduce wages to keep people in work. That is legal in the context of REAs and EROs. On that basis, we have introduced a sensible approach to addressing issues of real concern to employers and employees so that they can remain within the parameters of the legislation and not work outside it. We are taking a sensible approach to keeping people in their jobs.

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