David Cullinane (Sinn Fein)

I wish to clarify a point I made earlier. When I talked about a conflict between workers' rights and job creation I made the point that it was a false dichotomy. I do not believe that there is a conflict. It is important that we have robust protections and enhance employment rights. The Minister seeks to improve some of the employment rights and bodies and to streamline the process which my party supports. Some people have a perception about when they use words like "we need to be more competitive", or "we need to reduce the minimum wage" like the last Government did, "or we need to remove the Sunday premium" which is contained in the Bill but I will deal with that later. There is a false dichotomy that we need to reduce basic rights for some of the most vulnerable workers in the State as a justification for job creation and to create extra jobs.

The independent Duffy-Walsh report was published. Most of it was disregarded by the Government even though the authors found no evidence, and clearly stated that in their report, of a connection between the protection of pay rates which were previously determined by REAs and EROs and employment opportunities or levels. In other words, the authors found no evidence that reducing the basic level of pay for the lowest paid workers in the State would create jobs. Let us remind ourselves that we are talking about people who work in vulnerable sectors. Before joint labour committees were struck down, the average JLC rate per hour was €9.66. That meant that if one worked a 35-hour week in the retail sector under a JLC one earned less than €17,500 a year. An EU labour cost survey carried out in 2008 showed that labour costs in the retail, hotel and restaurant sectors were below the EU average. On the one hand, we should not race to the bottom while or, on the other hand, have a false dichotomy that rows back on basic rights and entitlements in order to make Ireland more competitive. I do not believe that is what the Minister is trying to do and I am simply responding to a point made by Senator Quinn. There is no difference between the two. We, as legislators, should set out the criteria so that it is not open to any sort of undue ministerial influence and I look forward to hearing what the Minister has to say.