Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I wish to share time with Deputies Spring, McFadden, Maloney, Connaughton and Conaghan.

I welcome the opportunity to make a contribution to this important debate. The Government takes this matter very seriously. During the economic crisis it has remained committed to maintaining rights, particularly those which protect the most vulnerable workers in society. If anything, where changes have been made or where new legislation has been introduced, the Government has improved those rights. On low pay alone, one of the first actions the Government took was to restore the minimum wage to €8.65 from €7.65, thereby reversing the cut delivered by the previous Government shortly before it left office. It was important that we did this as one of our first actions in government.

Making work pay continues to be a cornerstone of the Government's agenda and the establishment of the Low Pay Commission is one of the key commitments contained in the statement of Government priorities agreed in July of last year. The commission was set up last February on an interim administrative basis. Legislation to provide for its establishment on a statutory basis has undergone pre-legislative scrutiny before the relevant committee. This legislation will be published shortly, with a view to its being enacted very soon thereafter. The principal function of the Low Pay Commission will be - on an annual basis - to examine and make recommendations to the Minister of the day on the national minimum wage, with a view to securing that the latter will, where necessary, be adjusted incrementally over time, having had regard to changes in earnings, productivity, overall competitiveness and the likely impact any adjustment will have on employment and unemployment levels.

Alongside examining the national minimum wage, the commission will also be tasked with examining matters related generally to its functions under the Act. A work programme will be agreed by Government and presented to the commission in February of each year. In addition, in the discharging of its function the commission will be required to make recommendations that are evidence based. It will do so by using a suite of agreed data sets or, where required, it will base such recommendations on bespoke research undertaken at its behest. The approach to which I refer draws on that adopted in the UK where, since 1997, the recommendations of the UK Low Pay Commission have brought about a progressive increase of the minimum wage which has had little detrimental effect on the functioning of the economy or labour market. As with its counterpart in the UK, the success of the Low Pay Commission will be measured by its recommendations being accepted and acted upon by successive Governments.

Work should always pay. However, the Government is conscious of the need to balance a basic statutory minimum pay rate that is fair with one which is sustainable and which will allow employers to continue to create quality jobs. In that context, a particular function of the commission will be to ensure that any advice it offers or recommendations it makes to Government will be evidence based and that agreed data will be utilised in carrying out research and consultations with employers, workers and their representatives. In addition, the commission will take written and oral evidence from a wide range of organisations. This is to ensure that any suggested changes to the national minim wage will have the least adverse impact on employment and competitiveness. Alongside the work it will carry out in respect of this "hard data", the commission will consult employers and worker who are directly affected by the national minimum wage. This real-lived experience will be vital for the commissioners when deciding what should be the minimum wage rate. From an employer and worker perspective, a significant benefit of the Low Pay Commission concept is that national minimum wage rates will be assessed annually and, therefore, where they occur, any adjustments into the future will be incremental and less disruptive for business and will bear no relation to the type of "step changes" witnessed in the past.

The commission has already commenced its work. It has sought submissions and is expected to submit its first report by the middle of July. I look forward to the commission proceeding with its work. It is important that we should take action in this area and I am glad we are doing so. There is general support for the concept of the Low Pay Commission. In my view, the commission will remove politics from the equation. In the context of people's livelihoods, this issue is too important to ignore.

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