By Paddy Clancy, Reporter

The Patrick MacGill Summer School in Glenties which ended last Friday evening was acclaimed the most successful in the history of the event with a total of 48 high-profile speakers participating in a week of discussions aimed at highlighting what can be done to “fix” the crisis-stricken economy..
School founder and director Dr Joe Mulholland said interest in the discussions this year was intense and was reflected in the unprecedented nationwide media coverage.
Audiences on the final day heard that the government is considering new measures so companies who can’t afford to pay agreed minimum wages to their workers may opt out of the deal with employee and Labour Court approval in order to save jobs.
The move is designed to help a number of sectors, such as retail, agriculture and hairdressing, where pay and conditions are usually negotiated outside of established industrial relations procedures.
Employers in these sectors do not have a right, once agreements are reached, to claim inability to pay the €8.65 hourly minimum under the terms of the 2000 National Minimum Wage Act.
But Dara Calleary, Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, said that the government is considering extending the clause to include deals ratified by Joint Labour Committees and Registered Employment Agreements.
He said: “The government is committed to bringing forward legislation to modernise and strengthen these systems.”
Earlier on Friday, energy sector “stakeholders”, such as the Commission for Energy Regulation (CER), the Government and the ESB and Bord Gais, were challenged by Fine Gael to give priority to bringing down the cost of energy, including electricity and gas, in the next two years.
Fine Gael’s Communications, Energy and Natural Resources Spokesperson Simon Coveney said that although wholesale oil prices had dropped 58 per cent in the past 12 months tariffs for consumers were only reduced by 12 per cent for gas and 10 per cent for electricity by the CER.
Mr Coveney said: “Anyone who tells you that there is nothing we can do to reduce energy prices is either ignorant of the facts, compromised by self interest or deliberately misleading you.”
He said the ESB’s response to high electricity prices for industry was to “re-balance” prices in favour of business. “In other words, they want to reduce electricity prices to business by increasing them for households.
ESB chief executive Padraig McManus said “re-balancing” of tariffs over an extended period – perhaps up to 10 years – is necessary to reduce the high cost of electricity to the jobs-creation sector.