The Government is to establish a study to determine the extent and nature of the use of zero hours contracts for workers by Irish employers.

Minister of State for Business and Employment Ged Nash said he would make recommendations to Government based on the report, potentially on closing off loopholes, tightening regulations or even introducing primary or amending legislation to address what he described as an egregious phenomena.

“We would not be undertaking the study if we did not think there was a problem”, he said.

Mr Nash said he would not rule out anything out on how the Government would approach the issue once the study was completed.

He said under the system of zero hour contracts, people were on call at all times for hours that might be allocated to them by employers.

He said they had to remain on call even if no hours were allocated to them.

He said this was a precarious practice for anybody.

“There is very little certainty for people around their working hours, around their pay, very little certainty, and that is not something that is acceptable to me.”

He said he had come across the practice in the retail sector, the hospitality sector and the carer sector.

The Minister said this was the first time any Government had undertaken such a significant study.

He said significant resources would be allocated to the project.

He said all public representatives would be aware of troubling cases relating to zero hour contracts in their own constituency.

Addressing the Siptu health division conference in Dublin today (FRI) Mr Nash also said there were far too many working people in the country living on unacceptably low incomes.

“This phenomenon of the working poor is just simply unconscionable. People who are in work should be rewarded adequately and incentivised to stay there.”

He said the Government's new Low Pay Commission would advise on the appropriate national minimum wage.

He said the new commission would take an evidence-based approach and would include employer, trade union, academic and civil society representation.

The Minister expects the commission to draw up reports in 2015 and 2016 on the minimum wage.

He said that alongside the work of the commission, “we as a society, as a nation, need to have a discussion based on the everyday lived experiences of real workers, on what it takes to have a decent standard of living”.

He said he made no apology for previous comments he had made about the need for a wage-led recovery.