Mr. Barry O'Brien:

The community allowance in mental health has its origins in the 1980s. In 1984, the then Government's policy on the development of mental health services was entitled Planning for the Future. It would have seen a major shift from institutional to community care. The norm at that time was for the majority of mental health nurses to work in a hospital setting, usually on a long day shift and seven-day fortnights. The first major move to the community took place in Castlerea. There is a well-known formula, called the Castlerea formula, established by Labour Court recommendation No. LCR13358, which determined the compensatory factors. What happened was that as we moved to the community, to compensate for the loss of access to premium earnings from weekend work and night duty, it was agreed that a community allowance would be introduced to entice staff to move from institutional care to community care. That continued and was repeatedly re-stated in many subsequent Labour Court recommendations. I can confirm, however, that this has no longer applied to any newly recruited mental health staff since 2010, as part of our changed programme under the public service agreement. It is very much a legacy matter.