Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

As the terms of reference have made clear, the role of statutory wage setting mechanisms is to strike a balance between the need to protect employment and the need to protect working standards. There are two sides to this and, as I pointed out to Deputy Boyd Barrett, there have been significant job losses in these sectors on a truly dramatic scale. For example, 37% of low income jobs in retail and wholesale have been lost while more than 60% have been lost in construction. A number of sectors have been acutely affected by the recession. Other sectors face acute competition, particularly cross-Border competition. We must be mindful that our wage levels are substantially higher than in the North.

Some measures in these agreements have been inflexible in the way that have been applied and many have found that it is not just the pay levels but some of the conditions and the specific nature of requirements to be recorded, policed and honoured that need to be addressed. We must consider whether this is a suitable, modern mechanism to respond to sectors in deep crisis. That is the backdrop to this examination and that is why radical reform will be proposed in the review.

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