Ms Laverne McGuinness:

The HSE does not set public pay policy and the pay policy for the health service. It is set by the Government and the Departments of Public Expenditure and Reform and Health. The HSE’s role, as the Deputy rightly articulated it, is to implement public pay policy. I tried to explain its genesis. In 2009 we were asked to establish the individual pay rates for those working in the disability sector - the Deputy is correct about this - and to implement them. The Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Act 2013, FEMPI, brought forward another piece. It was revealed at the time that there were people who were employed under contracts with different rates of pay than those sought in order to be aligned with public pay policy. The HSE and the health service are not involved in setting public pay-----