Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Okay. I will ask the secretariat to formally arrange that briefing with the Office of the Parliamentary Legal Adviser and to come back to us with a suitable time.

No. 332C, dated 8 March 2017, is from the HSE, regarding correspondence we received last week about staff of the former charity Console. This was received late yesterday evening. The issue here is, essentially, that there were persons working for Console who have not been paid their wages - I have not read the full details of the letter; Console has gone into liquidation, none of its debts and liabilities have been paid; and the HSE is saying that it is a section 39 agency agreement and the HSE is not legally liable for any liabilities of such organisations. That is technically legally correct. However, that is not good enough. I suggest we take this matter up directly with the Minister for Health. We cannot preside over a situation where the staff members who were working for Console do not get paid. It may not be the HSE's legal responsibility but somebody has to pay them. We will take that up directly with the Minister.