Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Gerald Nash, to the House. His commitment to lower paid workers is acknowledged. We of course welcome the establishment of the Low Pay Commission. In a recent submission, we recommended increasing the national minimum wage by 55% to bring it up to €9.20 per hour, representing an increase of more than €1,000 per annum. The reduction in the minimum wage at a time of severe national and international crisis was obviously a mistake in retrospect, and not only because of the impact it had on those who were relying on the minimum wage, for whom an extra euro per hour would have been a life saver. Of course we acknowledge that was a mistake, but hindsight is wonderful. However, it was the Fianna Fáil Party that introduced legislation back in 2000 and that, in its period of office, progressively increased the national minimum wage six times between 2000 and 2007, from €5.58 to €8.65 per hour. Our credibility in this area should not be questioned because of one decision taken at a time of major national emergency.

We have made several recommendations in our submission, including a recommendation that the rise in the national minimum wage should be greater than inflation since 2007. Our suggested increase has been carefully balanced against any adverse effect on national employment and competitiveness. We believe the priority is to focus on the pay and job security of those who are in low-paid employment. Priority must be given to supporting those on low and middle incomes who are finding it hard to meet their weekly financial commitments. We believe there is no unanimity in Government on this. Although, as I stated at the outset, the Minister of State, Deputy Nash, and his colleagues in the Labour Party cannot be faulted on their commitment to the increase in the hourly rate, I am not sure that their opposite numbers in the Fine Gael Party share the same enthusiasm. The Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, and the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Bruton, have warned of the risks if the rate is increased, while the Tánaiste has talked about the introduction of a living wage. The Minister of State is on record as saying he favours increasing the minimum wage.

I take the point made by Senator Craughwell that, looking at the composition of the board of the Low Pay Commission, it seems to follow the pattern of appointments to commissions whereby the board members come from the worlds of academia, business and trade unions, which is right and proper in its own way because they all bring a certain level of expertise to the table. However, in the context of the Low Pay Commission, which is considering those who are most vulnerable in our workforce, it would seem that the inclusion of a person to represent those who have gone through the rigours of the economic crisis for the past six or seven years would be appropriate - for example, an employer who had to lay people off and had to struggle on a daily basis to make his or her business work, who now may not have that business and may be doing something else. Entrepreneurs tend to bounce back. In America the mark of success is how many bankruptcies one has had, whereas in Ireland, until recent years, bankruptcy was seen as a sign of failure and bankrupt people were written off. How many instances have there been of people who have bounced back? May I suggest that, if the occasion arises, we consider appointing to the board a person who has worked at the coalface?

Those who have been appointed to the Low Pay Commission include the chief executive officer of the Convenience Stores and Newsagents Association, a director from HR & Business Solutions, and the chief executive of the Maxol Group, who is also the president of IBEC. I do not see somebody who might be able to bring a particular expertise on the specific area of low pay. I hope the Minister of State will indicate that during the deliberations on the submissions, account will be taken of those who have gone through the most difficult period of our nation's economic history.

We welcome the establishment of the Low Pay Commission. I, too, hope the Low Pay Commission will take cognisance of the modalities and operational procedures of other low pay commissions, particularly the commission established in 1997 by our near neighbour, which has introduced reforms.I hope the Government takes that into account.