Dr. Joanne McCarthy:

There is still a lack of clarity around the restoration of pay. A package was put in place, I think in 2019 but I cannot be certain, where the top 50 funded organisations under section 39 would get a restoration of pay. That left a significant number of organisations that are delivering services that also had pay issues but that have not been addressed. We have asked and, as far as I know, there is still no plan to address the restoration of pay for that part of the section 39 organisations.

The Deputy is dead right. That means that often the organisations deliver very similar or matched or the same model of services through section 39, but those organisations are not able to match the pay of section 38 organisations, which are essentially funded through the public purse and are on the public sector payscales. The brain drain, therefore, continues to happen. A physiotherapist might be working in one organisation and then a vacancy comes up with a section 38 organisation. That person will apply for that post and then leave, because he or she will be doing the same job but for more money in the new job up the road. That whole level of inequity is one of the issues that we know exists.

These are the fundamental issues that are continuing to destabilise services in the disability area. Those issues are also one of the key things identified in the review undertaken by Catherine Day. The independent review group had been established, just before Covid-19 struck. We had our first meetings in October and November in the Department of Health. These are some of the key and tricky issues that have to be addressed. While we talk about this issue in respect of pay, we must not forget how the individual or family will experience the impact of that pay issue.

It is that destabilisation of the service. Can a person in a section 39 organisation be confident that the physiotherapist with whom he or she has built a relationship still be in place this time next year? Maybe the physiotherapist will get lured to a section 38 organisation that has the capacity to pay more money.