Paul Connaughton Snr (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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Question 90: To ask the Minister for Enterprise; Trade and Innovation his plans for changes in the system for setting regulated wages; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36445/10]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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Proposals for changes in statutory wage setting mechanisms are contained in the Industrial Relations (Amendment) Bill 2009. The Bill, which has passed all stages in the Seanad and has completed Second Stage in the Dáil, aims to modernise and strengthen the existing arrangements for the making of Employment Regulation Orders and Registered Employment Agreements and to provide for their more effective operation. The Bill provides for a mechanism whereby the Minister makes the order giving effect to proposals for Employment Regulation Orders.

The Bill provides for a number of amendments to the existing legislative framework surrounding the Joint Labour Committee (JLC) and Registered Employment Agreement (REA) systems, including improved procedures, and clear principles and policies to be taken into account by JLCs when formulating proposals for EROs. The Bill also provides that EROs and REAs will be given legal effect in future by Ministerial Order and that a perceived gap in the scope of parliamentary supervision will be filled by providing for Oireachtas scrutiny of these instruments.

I also announced at the time of the publication of the Bill that I propose to introduce an additional provision in the Bill - to be effected by means of an amendment to the Bill at Committee Stage – to facilitate the inclusion in EROs and REAs of an "inability to pay" mechanism, along the lines of the mechanism provided in the National Minimum Wage Act, 2000 in the interests of further strengthening these mechanisms against future court challenges and to protect employment in situations where employers are faced with severe economic challenges.