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

That, in essence, is the dishonesty of the Government's response. Correspondence to me states that as a section 39 body, they were instructed by the HSE to stay in line with the HSE pay scales and apply the cuts as per the Haddington Road agreement. All hospices were so instructed. All of them have communicated to the Minister in this vein, and the other organisations as well. It is not true to say that they were not governed by FEMPI legislation and that they did not have to implement pay cuts under FEMPI agreements. They did. In Marymount hospice, for example, there was a €300,000 deficit in 2017, and it will be higher in 2018. This is on top of a fairly low base, as it stands. In that hospice, for example, the stark statement is made that in its current model, Marymount is not a sustainable entity. I visited a Galway hospital recently and it is the same story there.

Words are cheap, but I would have to put it to the Taoiseach that the existing current base is inadequate. The Government's actions, in cynically trotting out this mantra that such organisation are not subject to FEMPI legislation and their employees are not public servants, is dishonest. Is the Taoiseach seriously suggesting that nurses in a hospice should get less pay than nurses in other parts of the health services or care staff in a hospice should get less pay than those in any other service? The Government is cynically exploiting the volunteers who are keeping these organisations going, from hospice to disability rights, across the board.

I have been told that hospice beds will be cut next year if this issue is not addressed. It is time to stop hiding behind that mantra, which it is fundamentally dishonest. I would ask that the Minister would meet the organisations face to face and get this issue resolved because the current position is not sustainable for them and is doing a great disservice to their ethos and to the fact that they are so rooted and so generally applauded in the community.

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