Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

On subhead B3, this is an issue that is arising in all the regions but I will raise it in the context of HSE south of which I have a greater intimate knowledge. We have a difficulty where there are organisations, such as COPE Foundation and St. Joseph's Foundation in Charleville, which provide care and services to persons in the community and which at the same time are obligated to honour all the wage agreements, for which there is no provision ever made in terms of funding from the HSE through the Department for such wage increases. All that ever happens is the wage increase is taken from the services side. Every time a wage increase comes about, rather than the HSE making funding provision for it, the organisations are asked to absorb that wage increase through service cuts. That is effectively what is happening. I assume that the HSE is aware of that as well. I wonder is there some way of addressing this issue in future Estimates where, if there is a national pay agreement, it would not be at the expense of service and there should be some other way of addressing that issue.