Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I was rather shocked when I heard the Minister of State talking about how marvellous the Independent Alliance is, what saints those involved are and what great work they are doing. It may be a case of the federation versus the alliance. I have before me a letter from the National Federation of Voluntary Bodies. The view of the federation is clear. The letter was written on behalf of section 39 member organisations that have fully complied with FEMPI legislation as well as the Haddington Road and Lansdowne Road agreements in the period since 2010. Pay cuts in respect of staff employed by these organisations were implemented to ensure compliance with the then revised Department of Health consolidated salary scales.

In 2010, when Fianna Fáil cut the grant, I represented those workers. We were under no illusions where the instructions were coming from: they were coming from Government.

What did the Minister of State, Deputy McGrath, do when he came to power? He picked it up and ran with it. He instructed those agencies to cut the pay of their workers. Now, he is saying they were only subject to a 70% cut or that they were only 70% funded. They had a 100% pay cut. They deserve 100% pay restoration and nothing less. It is an insult to those people for the Minister of State to come to the House and read out what he read. Day in, day out they work hard. They do not have public service pensions or job security. They are entirely dependent on the block grant, as the Minister of State knows. The block grant funds everything they do. Caring for people, minding them and looking after them is labour-intensive. Labour costs represent the biggest chunk of the money they spend. Of course wages were cut and the Minister of State knows it. They were cut 100% in many instances, exactly in line with the FEMPI legislation.

I thank Fianna Fáil for bringing forward the motion. If those in Fianna Fáil have any humility, they would apologise for what they did to those workers. Fianna Fáil started the cuts and then Fine Gael and the Labour Party picked up and ran with further cuts.

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