Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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Time is very tight and I thank the witnesses for coming in at short notice and the committee for organising it. I will come back to Ms Carty and Mr. Hearne for specific examples of the egregious parts of this, like how it feels at retirement after 40 years of work compared with their public service colleagues, the bereavement leave and the critical illness piece. I will come back to them in a minute so maybe they can have a think about it. The personal, human aspect of it is important to hear.

I will start with Mr. Pike. Is there a forum for engagement here or is Fórsa waiting to hear from the Department of public expenditure on this? On the argument that the floodgates will be opened, is the union making a particular case for school secretaries and caretakers? I am not arguing one way or another on that but it is said that if we provide public service status for them we will have to do it for a whole pile of other groups. Are there specific arguments Fórsa is making?