Michael Harty (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish to concentrate on two issues in respect of section 39 organisations. One is the financial sustainability, viability and quality of care section 39 organisations provide. Pay is an issue, but the provision of quality care to patients is paramount. Section 39 organisations supply essential services to patients, which are not provided by the HSE. They provide those services on behalf of the HSE. There is an expectation that they will provide the same quality of service as section 38 organisation organisations which are completely funded through the public service.

The other issue is the training of staff. Quite often, section 39 organisations are training grounds for other organisations. When staff have completed their training, they are poached by section 38 organisations or the HSE, because they have been trained to a very high standard, at a cost to the section 39 organisation. Section 39 organisations are suffering from a lack of continuity of care and professionals who are providing that care. Paradoxically, staff are being poached by the HSE, a Government-funded organisation which has reduced funding to section 39 organisations.

Section 39 organisations strive to supply the same level of care and service which is provided through publicly-funded services such as section 38 organisations, yet they have great difficulty in doing so. There is an imbalance between section 38 and section 39 organisations. Quite often, section 38 and 39 organisations are working side-by-side and are supplying the same service. Service users do not care how an organisation which is supplying a service to them is funded; they just want the same quality of service. When the Minister of State said section 39 organisations were not obliged to pass on pay cuts, that is not quite correct. They were advised that they should take into account what was happening in the public service and observe the pay reductions which were being inflicted on the public service. While organisations were not told they had reduce pay, they were certainly given a very strong indication that they should do so. There is no rhyme or reason for having a discrepancy between section 38 and section 39 organisations.

Deputy Michael Collins referred to FEMPI. It is not just section 39 organisations which were subject to FEMPI. Self-employed people such as GPs were also subjected to it, and they are expected to provide a level of service as they did prior to FEMPI, despite having had substantial reductions made to their resources.

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