Michael Noonan (Limerick East, Fine Gael)

We will leave it for the Finance Bill.

The Fine Gael proposal to abolish the 8.5% of employers PRSI was a better proposal than the abolition of the minimum wage. We capped that at around the total minimum wage and it would mean €30 to an employer taking on somebody. That is a more just incentive than reducing the minimum wage. The employer is worried about the cost of the job and if an employer's PRSI commitment can be reduced by €30 that gets him or her very close to what he or she would gain by a reduction of €1 in the minimum wage. That would be more progressive and it would protect the more vulnerable people in society. To put it bluntly, the Minister's proposals on the minimum wage are a savage imposition on the poorest and most vulnerable people in our society, many of whom have very little protection or rights at work. They have to work and that is their income. It would be easy for some of them to drift back into welfare, but they are people with a work ethic who want to work, they are earning low pay and the Minister is hitting them very hard.

A issue that has arisen today, which the Minister addressed in his contribution, is the payment of bonuses to certain employees of the covered institutions. That should be levied. We will table amendments on Committee Stage to allow the Minister an opportunity to examine this and to impose a levy to remove it, unless this was done with the Minister's permission. The Central Bank has raised serious doubts about it in a statement it issued this afternoon. I would be quite concerned about what is happening. My colleague, Deputy English, will deal with the Central Bank's statement later in the debate.

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