Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

To call them that is, as the Minister of State knows, disingenuous in the extreme. Both the Minister of State and I know they deliver services on behalf of the State for a fraction of the money people directly employed by the State get paid. The Minister of State needs to look at what the public pronouncements are and to consider whether or not there could be perhaps more respect shown to those workers and that perhaps that is the route to a resolution, that is, recognising that these workers deserve their pay increase.

More than that, the Government should look at the actual impact that the failure to address this issue is having. The unions have been incredibly patient as have the workers. This is going on for years. Every single time there is any pay movement on a national wage agreement or otherwise, the gap gets wider. We know the public service trade unions are going to be engaged in discussions before the end of the year and I am hopeful that there will be some class of an agreement arising out of that.

If this is not resolved, they will fall further behind. Every time there is a pay award, the gap gets wider. The job in the HSE becomes more attractive and the job in the voluntary sector becomes less attractive. Service users are left to worry about who is going to provide the services to them. I note that the senior Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, is here. I welcome him. I hope that, in his contribution, he will be able to outline how he believes this situation will be resolved. As I have said, there are service users in the Gallery and I am sure they want to know how the Minister thinks this situation will be resolved because resolved it must be. Some 70% of the services for persons with disabilities are provided by the voluntary sector. Those people need to be paid to provide that service. They do not want to be on the picket line next Tuesday but it is in the gift of the Government to ensure that does not happen.

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