Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

The view is linked to the impact on reducing the average wages of people already in work. I admit that although they are protected by existing contracts there may be reductions over time. That is significantly outweighed by the employment opportunity created by getting people back to work. I quoted the figure that a person is ten times more likely to be in poverty if he or she is out of work rather than working. That is a significant benefit.

We do not have a model to predict accurately the impact of the changes. The changes cannot be computed by models which simply bring a rate down or up such as the minimum wage rate. Those changes have been analysed by these models but that is not what is being proposed. It is proposed to make some changes in respect of Sunday premiums, to standardise these over time, to look at excessive compliance costs in place and to create a more flexible model to respond to opportunities. There is no detailed model in my Department or any other Department that can predict the impact of these.

See this speech in context