People in low grades, such as clerical officers and those who were working part-time within the sector, frequently qualified for family income supplement, which is unconscionable. In the Department of Education and Science and the Department of Health and Children in particular, the pay of many people was below the minimum wage introduced by the Government. This situation could not be allowed to continue. There was a need to break that log-jam, but it could not have been done without breaking the relativities, which led to benchmarking. The fact that it succeeded in doing that – I listened to what Senator O'Toole said earlier – is a major achievement and it has been delivered against the background of relative industrial peace in recent years. To that extent, the Labour Party endorses it and it has been an important move forward.