Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)

I must ask about a technical point even though I have been here a while. If we accept this amendment at this Stage, does it require the Bill to be published again before Report Stage, which is tomorrow afternoon? I asked the people in the Bills Office if they would consider amendments from me for Report Stage, and they said there was no Report Stage scheduled and that it would require the Whips to alter the timetable for tomorrow. In some ways they were discouraging, without being interfering. I was asking with the intention of tabling an amendment on Report Stage with regard to the Citizens' Information Board because I missed the deadline for Committee Stage amendments due to the timeframe involved. It is only a technical point.

Section 3 provides for a reduction in employers' PRSI. This is the bargain that was made with employers in exchange for the increase in the national minimum wage. It was mentioned that the provision in the Bill is a temporary one. There is no guarantee that this will be stuck to, because we could come here in two years' time with another social welfare Bill which provides that the reduction for employers will be extended.

The effect of section 3 will be to reduce substantially the amount of money paid by employers in PRSI for low-paid workers and therefore substantially reduce the money received by the Exchequer. This is happening at a time of increasing costs to the Exchequer due to unemployment. There is no benefit that I can see in giving this concession to employers rather than employees.

I can see no advantage for employers rather than employees getting the benefit.

Until recently, the difference between the two employer PRSI rates have been quite close and, subsequently, there was no major move by employers to reduce wages. This new measure might end up being an incentive for employers to reduce wages just to gain a saving on their PRSI contributions. For example, an employer paying €390 a week to an employee could reduce it by €34 to comply with the €356 threshold. The employer could save €27 on PRSI contributions, on top of saving €34 gained through the wage reduction, a total of €61 a week. Over a year, this saving on one employee would amount to €3,172. There is, accordingly, an incentive for employers of the low paid to drop wages by hook or by crook.

My amendment No. 3 proposes that the provisions of section 3 would only apply to new jobs. A new job would be defined by the employer applying to a panel comprising officials from the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation and representatives from trade unions and employer organisations.

A person who earns more than €356 a week but comes under pressure to take a pay cut to come below this threshold or loses their job to be replaced by someone on the lower wage rate should be allowed to take their case to the Employment Appeals Tribunal. We need to have mechanisms in place to protect the low paid. Given that the Government is reviewing joint labour committee wage agreements and employment regulations orders, a substantial number of workers will be affected by the pressures for a reduction in their wages.

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