Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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570. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if she has received a copy of the Irish Congress of Trade Union report, Because We’re Worth It The Truth about CEO Pay in Ireland; if so, her views on the report; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [14898/17]

Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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I am aware of the Irish Congress of Trade Union’s report Because We’re Worth It The Truth about CEO Pay in Ireland.

In general, executive remuneration is a private contractual matter between a company’s board of directors and the CEO.

At EU level, a new Shareholder Rights Directive is expected to be adopted shortly. The Directive’s ambition is to ensure greater transparency and encourage greater shareholder involvement in the long term investments of public limited companies. An aspect of this approach is to ensure greater shareholder involvement in determining the pay of the company directors.   

Legislation governing the operation of the Low Pay Commission requires that the Commission, when making a recommendation each year on the appropriate rate of the National Minimum Wage, "shall have regard to changes in income distribution during the relevant period".  The Commission has addressed the question of income distribution in its annual reports.

In 2016, the Commission noted in its report that while pre-tax and transfer distribution of income in Ireland is one of the most unequal in the OECD, our tax and transfer system, on the other hand, is progressive, resulting in a distribution of income post-tax and transfers at around the OECD average. It is interesting to note that wage inequality declined substantially from the level of the mid-1990s to the early 2000s before rising during the Celtic Tiger period.  The recession however saw a reduction in wage inequality which counterbalanced the increase observed during the boom period.  There is some evidence that inequality may be increasing again during the recovery but it is important to exercise caution against drawing strong inferences from only one available year of recovery.