Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I heard the earlier statement. I welcome the fact that there is a stopgap measure. That is all it should be in order to buy the Minister of State and the Department time until after the election. It does not address the fact that many of the companies are dangerously near financial breaking point. I realise the Minister of State knows about the equine project in Cherry Orchard. There was an audit for two years and a financial plan was put together on the basis of predictions about where funding would go in the future. Those concerned were not aware at that stage that they had to come up with another €11,000 in 2016 to pay the minimum wage. That means they will have to increase the cost or let people go. This defeats the purpose. The Minister of State made the point earlier that the services provided must be accessible to the users, which means keeping costs low. Especially with the likes of the equine centre, it means one cannot have extra hours for the horses, as it is already working at full tilt. One cannot squash more horses into the stables because there are none. Therefore, no more can be charged to raise funds. There is no other stream of income. While the centre might be able to apply for the stopgap measure announced, that defeats the purpose. The Minister of State already knows 40% of the workers in the CSP are on the minimum wage. We are not asking the Government to fund an increase for everyone on the CSP, just those on the minimum wage. We are asking it to plan for the future.

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