Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I too extend a welcome to the National Federation of Voluntary Service Providers and service users in the Gallery.

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions, ICTU, recently announced the intention of SIPTU, Fórsa and Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO, members representing section 39 and section 56 workers to initiate indefinite strike action on 17 October. It was announced three weeks ago and I thought surely there would be time to resolve the issue before they went to strike. If this industrial action is not averted, serious hardship will befall families and communities. These are workers who work in front-line services, including health and disability services and family support. They look after children and take care of older people. They also offer homelessness and addiction services. Section 56 organisations provide services funded by Tusla. There are at least 700 section 56 organisations that provide services related to domestic, sexual and gender-based violence.

Section 39 organisations are generally voluntary, non-statutory service providers responsible for the provision of personal social services, mainly disability services. There are approximately 1,900 organisations with section 39 status and they include children's disability network teams, CDNTs, respite services, hospices, mental health providers, nursing home and home care providers, small community-based groups and social care services. We have examples such as Enable Ireland, Rehab Group and the Irish Wheelchair Association, IWA. This dispute over the disparity in terms and conditions is not recent. It has been ongoing for more than 13 years, dating back to a decision to reduce pay for those workers during the recession. While pay for the HSE and their section 38 counterparts has been restored, that has not been the case for section 39 and section 56 workers. The industrial action that is to start next Tuesday is an inevitable consequence of the Government's ongoing refusal to properly address the disparity in pay and conditions for these workers. The workers in these sectors have now chosen to take this action because the State, as the chief funding body, has failed to grasp the seriousness of the staffing crisis that it helped to create. There are, for instance, 707 staff vacancies in CDNTs according to the most recent HSE census, taken almost one year ago. I recognise that not all of those teams are section 39 organisations and some of them are within the HSE. The point is that the section 39 CDNTs are haemorrhaging staff to the HSE. This situation cannot be sustained. We have over 10,000 children with disabilities waiting more than 12 months for an initial contact with a specialist team. We have more waiting for overdue assessments of needs.

Respite is another service staffed by workers in section 39 organisations. Respite plays an essential role in supporting family carers and disabled people, yet three quarters of families are unable to get respite at all. There is now a significant and growing level of unmet need in respite care with fewer than 5,200 people receiving respite services in 2022 despite an estimated 20,000 people, or more, with intellectual disabilities, physical and sensory disabilities or autism living with their families.

The situation is getting worse. Fewer people received respite in 2022 than received it in 2018. These are the sorts of essential services that will be affected due to the Government dragging its feet on this issue for years. We must also remember that we are in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis, with increased prices for food and fuel, increased mortgage interest rates and so forth. Workers are having to deal with this while they area on lesser terms and conditions than their HSE and section 28 counterparts who are often working next to them in the same building, who have the same qualifications and do the same work, but with whom there is a pay disparity in excess of 10%. Workers do tremendous work to deliver vital services in the community and they have been treated abysmally. The decision to take strike action was taken with a heavy heart. It is an action of last resort. It has been a difficult decision for the workers involved who are passionate about delivering essential services.

It was clear that the offer of 5% made by the Government in July fell way below what was expected and would be rejected as the pay differential is in excess of 10%. I raised this issue here in the Dáil with the Taoiseach. In response, he told me:

I do not think it is correct to say that the Government expected the offer would be refused, because a very similar offer was accepted by the community and voluntary sector when it was put to a ballot ... On this occasion, a decision was taken by the unions not to put the offer to a ballot of their members. It is unfortunate that did not happen.

That was factually incorrect. All three unions carried out a ballot of their workers and report that the ballots returned showed a very high level of participation and overwhelming support for industrial action up to and including strike. The Government now has to engage seriously with the unions and make a sufficient offer to ensure this issue is dealt with. We must ensure that disabled people, their families and wider communities will not be put through the hardship this will inevitably cause. These organisations, as I said, are haemorrhaging staff to the HSE and section 38 organisations. They already, in many instances, have to curtail their services because they cannot get the staff to provide a full service. If the issue is not addressed properly, these essential services will close and there will be an obligation on the HSE to step in and provide them itself at a much greater cost to the taxpayer.

Government inaction and delay has only served to put these vital community services at risk and leave section 39 and section 56 workers to feel as though they have no option but to withdraw their labour. The Government offered workers a pay increase of just 5%. The reality is that the pay gap of some staff in section 39 organisations has been estimated to be approximately 15% when compared with staff employed by the HSE or section 38 organisations despite their doing the same work. A Sinn Féin government would engage seriously with the relevant trade unions. As part of our proposed budget package, we allocated additional funding to provide for the outcome of such a negotiation. The Government needs to act now. I am delighted to hear that officials are engaging with the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, and I hope that will lead to serious discussions whereby a sufficient offer is put on the table to the unions for their workers. Families understand the need for strike and they are supporting the workers in these organisations even though they are dreading the thoughts of it because of the hardship it is going to bring. Those families realise that if something is not done to address this issue, the services will not be there for them very soon.

My predecessor, former Deputy Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin, brought forward a motion on this issue in December 2019. It was his last action before the previous Dáil was dissolved, which happened just after Christmas. His motion addressed the pay disparity between the section 39 organisation and other organisations. Fianna Fáil supported that motion. Why now, when the party is in government and has the ability to address the issue and solve it once and for all, can it not do it? I am begging the Government to ensure this issue is dealt with as soon as possible.

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