Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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179. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the amount of funding the Low Pay Commission received in 2020; and the amount it is expected to receive in 2021, in tabular form. [34144/21]

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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180. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the estimated cost of increasing the funding for the Low Pay Commission by 5%, 10%, 20%, and 50%, in tabular form. [34145/21]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 179 and 180 together.

The Low Pay Commission (LPC) received an allocation of €490,000 from my Department’s Vote in 2020.

In terms of 2021, a Further Revised Estimate (FRE) for the Department will be submitted shortly to the Dáil for approval. It is expected that the LPC’s gross allocation will be maintained at €490,000  in 2021

On the basis of the LPC’s expected allocation for 2021, the table below provides the estimated cost of increasing the Commission’s funding by 5%, 10%, 20% and 50%.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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181. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the staffing arrangements of the Low Pay Commission; the number of staff are dedicated to the Commission; and the cost of staffing arrangements. [34146/21]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The key responsibilities of the Low Pay Commission (LPC) are to make recommendations to the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment designed to set a minimum wage that is fair and sustainable. 

The operations of the LPC are supported by a team in the Enterprise, Strategy, Competitiveness and Evaluation Division of my Department. The team is led at Principal Officer level and the supporting staff complement is 2.6 (FTE) as set out in the table below. Costs are based on the average costs by grade. The Principal Officer is included in the table below for completeness however the incumbent has other duties for which they are also responsible within the Division.

It should be noted by the Deputy that approval has recently been granted for an additional resource at Administrative Officer (AO) level to manage the commitments in the Programme for Government, specifically relating to research on the living wage and the universal basic income. This will increase the current supporting team by one to 3.6 (FTE).