Ms Catherine Keogh:

I echo what Mr. Donnelly said in terms of the career pathway. Fórsa has been working with the HSE to establish a deputy home help grade. It is a new title. The role was called home help co-ordinator. Now it is called home support resource manager. We have been looking to establish a deputy grade. It would make sense that a career pathway is developed for people who know and work in the system and who will stay in the system. At the mention of career pathways, people think that we are just talking about promotions, but it is not about that. It is about capturing the knowledge in a service and making sure it is used to the betterment of the service. We support SIPTU in seeking that career pathway.

On family-friendly working, Mr. Ginley's point is well made. One of the key barriers for our managers who are involved in the recruitment process, in terms of the interviewing piece rather than the Manorhamilton piece, is not having sufficient hours to give appropriate contracts to people who would take the contracts up if they could balance them against their family commitments. We ask the HSE to be agile. Agility is what we need in this regard. Many home support services are needed early in the morning and late in the evening, but people do not want split contracts. The managers of the service and the workers need to have a system that reacts to the needs of service, the needs of the clients and the needs of the workforce.