Annie Hoey (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the unions for the presentations. I was watching them on the screen.

There are two areas I want to focus on to give everyone enough time to answer. The first one is on the two-tier leave system that was alluded to in one submission. I have also read around that support staff are classified as non-officers under the HSE staffing structures and get paid leave for three months after an assault. Meanwhile, clerical and administrative officers, who are classified as officers, get full pay for up to six months. Nurses and midwives can avail of longer durations of paid leave than that. That results in a support worker who was subjected to a serious physical assault being left in a situation where they are getting only 25% of the leave of someone who could have been assaulted in the exact same scenario.

How did we end up in a position like this? Who decided it? This is an HSE policy and HSE officials are not here to respond to this. How did we end up in this situation where we have these differing grade levels? Is it because of the jobs they have? Is it an HSE policy? Is it the same policy in the private sector? I ask the witnesses to elaborate a little on that. I am sure many people listening in would be astonished to hear that we have a two- or perhaps three-tier system for who gets leave, despite the fact they could all be involved in the same incident.