Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the fact that the Minister met the unions on this issue. As she acknowledges, underinvestment is the elephant in the room. Capitation rates are not high enough to subsidise an increase in pay for fair wages. What is the Minister's view of the introduction of a fair pay scale or a living wage? Would she and the Department support that? Government should advocate that all contracts costed by the State should provide at least for a living wage and this should begin with the affordable childcare scheme. Built into this should be a requirement that it is passed on to the workforce employed to deliver the service. A part of the concern is that the increase in capitation rates will not be passed on as wages because many services are not even ticking over and cannot afford to pass on that increase. We propose that it would be passed on to the workforce.

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