Mr. Stephen Mulvany:

I totally agree with the Deputy's point. Section 39 organisations are funded under the section 39 of the Health Act. Their staff are not public servants or funded as public servants the same as the section 38 organisations. However, in many practical ways, many of the bigger section 39 disability organisations are, for all intents and purposes, providing very similar services. Our reliance on them is appropriately similar. The issue the Deputy mentioned is often described as the pay parity issue. We dealt with the pay restoration issue. The fact of the matter is pre-recession, in 2008 and 2009, their staff were not our staff, and they are not public servants and therefore, we are not the employer in any way. However, as a result of practice over years, their staff were able to be on similar salary scales to those in the section 39 organisations and ourselves. That was lost.