Mr. Brian O'Donnell:

I want to go back to Deputy Kelleher's very perceptive remarks around the nature and importance of the relationship between voluntary organisations, the people they support, their families and the communities in which they are born. We often make the point that voluntary organisations have historically grown out of communities. Many section 39 organisations are family and friend associations that were established by families. The importance of this in the context of national disability policy, which we all welcome, is about participation, social inclusion and connectedness with one's community. Section 39 organisations in particular, in being borne out of local communities, are uniquely placed to deliver on that. If we link this to the conversation we had this morning on pay restoration, the role of the social care worker, especially in section 39 organisations, is changing. It has to change in line with disability policy. Increasingly they are required to be more community co-ordinators and to make linkages. If people who have disabilities are to have meaningful lives in the community it will involve people building and making relationships with communities, be they employers, training providers or educationalists. The complexity of the role of the social care workers employed in section 39 organisations is changing. This is all the more reason that they should not have to endure this reduction in pay without any hope of restoration. That is probably the overriding message we, as the representative organisations, wanted to give to the committee today.