Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

With regard to the public service pay element of the programme for Government, the Taoiseach will not doubt be aware that employees of section 38 and 39 organisations, the organisations which provide a range of health and disability services and hospice care throughout the country, are still awaiting the most recent interim pay increases. The Minister said yesterday in the Seanad that these people were not public servants.

There is an extraordinary cop-out going on. I put it to the Taoiseach that he cannot get away with saying to these organisations that while we have these national pay agreements, they must find the money within their existing resources and that no additional allocation is made through the HSE to these bodies. Services will be cut as a result or there will be unnecessary industrial action. I am talking about a range of disability organisations throughout the country. The public would generally be shocked that people working in our hospices and disability organisations are now treated in a separate zone from public servants. It is wrong and the Government should change its tack on it.

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