Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate and like my colleague, I thank Deputy O'Dea for rapidly introducing what I consider to be comprehensive legislation. The Minister has indicated with the benefit of legal advice from the Attorney General that it is not sufficiently robust - I believe that was the language used - or comprehensive. While I acknowledge this is the position being taken by the Minister, nothing prevents him from allowing the Bill to proceed to Committee Stage and then introducing substantial amendments to meet the needs of the Attorney General or any other legal advice taken in this regard.

I am approaching this issue from the perspective of being Fianna Fáil's spokesperson on tourism and I look to the many people who are employed in that sector. In many cases, such people are in receipt of relatively low wages anyway. If one goes through the various different wage structures that exist within the JLC structure, these people are not highly paid. Moreover, the people who in general are protected by JLCs effectively are in careers they have decided to follow. During the course of the election, much was made by the Labour Party, as well as by Fine Gael Members, of their intention to protect the lowest-paid workers in society. As such, they made a commitment to the people to reverse the decision taken by the previous Government on the minimum wage. As the Minister is aware, the minimum wage covers a very small group of employees who usually are people in a transient employment structure. They may be young people who are entering the workforce for the first time or those who find themselves between jobs. The JLCs protect those who I believe have taken a particular career path or career choice. From the tourism perspective, it is neither adequate nor right that the Minister would undermine that wage structure or allow certain unscrupulous employers to undermine it. People in this country, as well the tourists, greatly value the unique welcome that the Irish present and the unique work done by Irish people in the tourism sector. If the Government is prepared to allow the framework under which such people's pay is protected to drop or diminish or to lead in any way to a disgruntlement of those workers, it will damage the very face of Irish tourism and the Minister should give serious consideration to this point.

The Minister has indicated with regard to the lacuna that exists at present by virtue of the court case effectively ending the JLCs that somehow individuals who already are in a contract of employment have a degree of security of tenure. Deputy O'Dea set out clearly the nonsense of that assertion. I refer to the example of an employer who is not unscrupulous but who must remain competitive. Were such an employer to tell his or her workforce that because the nearby hotelier, restaurateur or contract cleaner who has just entered the market has taken on a new group of people, he or she has no choice but to ask the workers to change their contract, the workers would be in no position to challenge that. They would be damned glad to have any level of income, despite the impact it would have on their lifestyles and on their ability to pay their mortgages or to pay their way. Moreover, I suspect that in the case of many, the family income supplement would be their next port of call.

In conclusion, the Minister is undermining the quality of the employees by targeting them in an unfair manner, putting them at a disadvantage in respect of their lifestyles and making them more disgruntled with regard to their work. I believe this will have an impact on tourism while at the same time imposing a greater burden on the State to support their income through family income supplement. Other speakers indicated the unwillingness of some within the catering sector to honour the Minister's desire to create more turnover within the economy through a reduction of 4% in the VAT rate. He robbed the private pension plans of pensioners to support this and it has not been taken up terribly well. Somehow, he is now leaving the lives of these workers to the scruples of these individuals who have not even honoured what the Minister tried to do. I am concerned in this regard. I would have thought many more members of the Labour Party would have been in the Chamber for this debate and to support those whom they seem to indicate they will protect.

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