Ms Mo Flynn:

On the impact on service provision, I would like to outline just two scenarios. The first concerns the impact on one of our care workers' earnings. Those who started in any of our organisations after May 2012 are now operating according to a 90% scale because of the lack of restoration in regard to the Haddington Road pay scales. We have received no funding to restore the scale to 100%. An individual operating on the first point of the scale is currently earning €120 per month less than someone doing the same job in a section 38 agency or in HSE employment. With the implementation in 2018 of the next two provisions with regard to Lansdowne Road pay restoration, the differential that will occur during the year will rise to €140 per month. That obviously has a very significant impact. As one goes higher up the scale, the impact becomes greater.

The money concerned is a huge amount for an individual on a relatively low starting salary. What is occurring is an incentive to move to another employer. Ultimately, it affects people with disabilities, and it does so in two very key areas. First, as Mr. O'Donnell stated, staff turnover is very high. This is directly related to pay, reduced pay scales for new entrants applied under the Haddington Road agreement, and the decision of the HSE not to pay the increases under the Lansdowne Road agreement. Since 2012, Rehab has hired 1,167 employees but 40% of them have now left the organisation. Each year, between 15% and 17% of our staff leave, mostly in year one or year two of their service. Continuity and familiarity are so important when delivering support services to people with disabilities, particularly those with high-support needs.

Throughout all our organisations, we are in the unsustainable position of going to the expense of hiring employees because, obviously, each person who has left needs to be replaced. The organisation incurs the costs involved with recruiting and training them and then loses them to a section 38 body or HSE service in the same region and sometimes in the same town, all of which are now funded to pay those individuals more.

The real impact of these cuts and the lack of pay restoration can be seen in the areas of continuity of service provision and the incredible isolation. Many of the people with whom we work have profound disabilities and have considerable difficulty in communicating. As an example, with individuals whose only method of communication is non-verbal either through their eyes or facial movement, it can be begun to be comprehended how long it takes a staff member to build a relationship with somebody whereby they can both communicate and that staff member understands his or her needs. If that staff member changes five times a year, can the committee members imagine the isolation felt by that individual with a disability who goes into a world of silence again because he or she is unable to communicate his or her needs because somebody new has to learn this? That is the reality. We can talk in abstract terms about figures but we see how people's lives are impacted. This is not about us ignoring the needs of people with disabilities in favour of workers getting more pay. This is about a recognition that we have skilled professional people who are required to bring their skills to empower and support those people with disabilities to live good occupied lives that they themselves determine, but if they cannot communicate because we do not have the skills and the people to engage with them, we are in a very difficult situation. Sometimes in these discussions we can lose sight of the very human element of this. In reality, this is what this means if this does not happen and there is that constant changeover of staff and the training costs incurred.

The Deputy asked about costs. Within the not-for-profit organisations, which represent the largest groups of employees who are affected by this, we estimate that the cost to 2018 will be €13 million. Obviously, that is rising with each year.