Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on what is a very emotive issue for everyone in the House. I welcome the people in the Gallery. On a normal day they have other things to do to look after the work and the services they are providing.

Everyone knows that if we do not pay our workers properly they will go where they will get better pay for doing the same work. That is the kernel of the problem but it has gone way beyond that because it is now a service provision issue. Services have been closing over the past six or eight months on the basis that we cannot get staff. We cannot get homecare workers because they have gone to the HSE. They are the facts. In the constituency which the Minister of State and I represent, there is Ability West and the Irish Wheelchair Association; Brooklodge day centre which contacted me the other day; and the Brothers of Charity. We have all of these and more. Then the parents of people who need the services are ringing me. The other day a woman rang me. I asked her what age her son was and she told me he was 42. The mother was 85 years of age. She is worried about what her son will be doing next Tuesday. She has spent 41 years looking after her son and now, at 85 years of age, she is doubly concerned about his future. A woman was on to me this evening who has an adopted daughter aged 31. What will happen her? These people are not ringing because we are politicians. They are upset. They are breaking down on the phone. When we talk about negotiations about wages there is a game that goes on.

I saw it happen with the school secretaries - it was played out again and again. The Department of Education said it was the responsibility of the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform. It does not matter. This evening, Government Deputies have put it squarely in the Government's hands that this needs to be solved before Tuesday. The Minister for Finance was right, and I agreed with him when we met in respect of our budgetary submission. He said it has gone way beyond a pay issue. To make an offer or try to barter is not what this is about; it is about a service. We need to give pay parity - full stop - in order that equal services can be provided.

I can see HIQA closing a hell of a lot more services in the next few months unless we cop on to what is happening because we do not have the staff to run those services. We can talk about all the money in budgets, what we will invest in services and all the infrastructure that will be put in place in respect of disability, but if we do not have the staff to run the services, we will be going nowhere. As a member of the Joint Committee on Disability Matters, I plead with the Government. We have heard over the past three years about the torment, anxiety and stress that people in that sector go through. Here we are adding more stress, worry and anxiety for families. It is not right. It should never happen. I do not blame this Government in particular; I blame successive Governments. The ball is firmly the Government's court. Its backbenchers have said that.

I welcome former Senator, John Dolan, from the Disability Federation of Ireland, who is in the Gallery. This is serious. Everybody is serious about it. I plead with the Government to work over the weekend and get it right for Tuesday.

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