James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak in favour of pay restoration for employees of section 39 organisations. I commend Deputy Dara Calleary and the Fianna Fáil Party for tabling the motion.

Section 39 organisations operate on a voluntary basis and provide a wide range of vital services such as hospice care, disability support services and home help services. They do amazing work that, to all intents and purposes, the State should be doing. They provide exceptional value for money and release the State from significant levels of expenditure. In my constituency of Wexford there are numerous section 39 organisations which are doing commendable work for local communities. They include St. Aidan's Day Centre in Gorey, New Ross Community Hospital, the Ardaoíbhínn community initiative in Wexford town and the County Wexford Community Workshop in Enniscorthy. Pay restoration for section 39 organisations should not require a Private Members' Bill. It is wholly inadequate that the Government is continuing to turn a blind eye to the unfairness for employees of section 39 organisations.

I tabled a parliamentary question on this issue in October 2017 and was disappointed with the reply from the Minister for Health. In his reply he pointed to the responsibility of those working in section 39 organisations to negotiate their own salaries. However, he conveniently ignored the fact that the HSE was the body that provided the funding to deliver agreed services which required an appropriate level of staffing to do so. In many ways, the answer reflected the Government's ambivalence, inaction and detachment on the issue. When the last Government cut funding to the organisations, front-line staff suffered significant pay reductions. They suffered significant pay cuts as part of the wider public sector pay reductions imposed by the last Government. However, staff in the organisations have not been given a pathway to pay restoration in line with their colleagues in the public sector. Historically, there was a link between public sector workers and section 39 staff and now that the State's finances are in a healthier position, funding for section 39 organisations should be increased to allow for pay restoration in the same manner as it has occurred for public sector staff. The organisations are losing essential staff to the HSE and section 38 organisations and their vital work is being undermined. It is vital that the Minister seek additional funding from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform to increase the annual funding for section 39 organisations, with the express intention of bringing about pay restoration. Leaving it up to the management of the organisations to choose between restoring pay and maintaining services for the most vulnerable in society is an abdication of responsibility by the Minister and the HSE. The staff do work that is on a par with that done by their public sector colleagues and they are entitled to pay parity.

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