Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We have reached the end of this session. Many issues have been raised by the witnesses. Hopefully, we will be able to advance some of them. We were not aware that there was no discussion regarding the pandemic payment rate with Fórsa, but this is something that this committee can follow through on with the relevant authorities or Minister. We will also look at various other issues, particularly the Health and Safety Authority and its disappointing role in this context.

I am conscious that a large number of people are working in the health service and, on behalf of the committee, I thank all of them for their hard work and especially during the stressful times we have lived in during the past two years. It is not enough to be clapping people for the work they have done. There need to be supports in this regard. I am appalled by the idea of one set of workers being treated differently from another, especially regarding long Covid-19 and one group getting additional support over another. This is not acceptable in the world we live in. It is similarly unacceptable in any service that one set of workers, because they are a particular set of workers, have not got a pay increase in the past ten years. Many issues have been raised during this session and we will try to follow through on them. We will submit questions and when relevant people are before the committee, the members can ask the questions at that time. We will also, though, follow up as a committee on many of the issues the witnesses have raised and hopefully get some sort of answers.

I thank the members of the Better Working Lives for All committee. Many of its representatives are in the Gallery today. I think it was really useful as part of our discussions that it sent in its document. I again thank the organisation for that. I hope they found this meeting useful. It is probably frustrating that they are in the Gallery and not at the table here, but it is very difficult to try to manage the number of groups coming in at the same time. I like to think that we would at some stage return to this topic in future, look at the format again and perhaps bring in different people, as has been suggested. I thank everyone very much.