Mr. Liam Berney:

The workers referred to by the Senator work for organisations that rely predominantly on State funding. For many years before the financial crash in 2008, in providing resources to the organisations in which these workers work, Governments would have provided money to give workers either the increases applying in the public sector or another type of increase. There was a link between what was happening in the wider economy and the grant paid by Government. When the Government of the day cut public sector pay in 2008, it also insisted on the pay of these workers being cut. We had a campaign to restore that pay that was partially successful but the majority of these workers have not received a pay increase for over 14 years. The only way we can see that happening is if there is a mechanism through which there is a sectoral collective bargaining mechanism that allows employers and unions to discuss how wages should be adjusted in light of the circumstances these organisations face with the Government playing an active role in that in providing resources for whatever the results of those negotiations are. Unless we have something like that, we will not solve this problem. I noted that last Friday the Tánaiste said that the Government would provide €100 million or €110 million for one portion of the problem, that is, the section 39 organisations, but we have yet to see the detail of that. It does not solve the problem for the remaining workers who would be classified as being in the voluntary and community sector who need an active process of collective bargaining that would allow their wages to keep pace with wage growth in the economy generally.