Mr. Kevin Figgis:

I think our collective view is that this is just part of the strategy. The strategy is just to delay things and to drag them out. When we left the Dáil last year after our discussion about the section 39 workers, we said to ourselves that it was a good day. We had the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, and the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, come down to the committee room to respond to all the Opposition parties, which were all unified in support of the section 39 workers. We said to ourselves: "Here are two Government Ministers both saying that this has the support of the Government." We said we would write that letter and move this on to get those section 39 workers off the streets and back looking after very vulnerable people in our society. Yet it took three months for the HSE to respond and to confirm that it was willing to attend. It stated to us at the last meeting of the NJC, in front of the Department of Health, that it would not engage in a process where it had no mandate but that if it were given a mandate, it would gladly engage. This is the strategy. It is between the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, the Department of Health and the HSE, and the HSE for so many of these decisions is left with no authority yet its representatives are told, "If you go in, go in, but you can agree to nothing unless we give our approval, and we will not give that."

Finally, when we wrote the letter we asked for the HSE, the Department of Health and the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform to be invited to those proceedings. The latter Department was the first to respond to say it would not attend, yet they are the people who hold the strings of everything else falling into place.