Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Unfortunately I was not in attendance at the discussion on this Bill on Tuesday. Although I wanted to be here, I was not able to attend. I welcome this discussion, which goes to the heart of everything we do and to the heart of fairness and equity. I want to agree with something that Deputy Nash said. I would imagine that most Deputies in this Chamber are in agreement with this amendment and agree that secretarial assistants are facing difficulties with regard to their pay. A lot of what has been said already deals with what we know about. We know our secretarial assistants are at the forefront of the work we do and deal with the most difficult and pressing situations. They deal with a huge number of people who are in crisis for a range of different reasons and they are the people who a lot of our constituents turn to when they are in a moment of crisis. They are the people who need to have the empathy, understanding and ability to get things done and help people when they are in that crisis situation.

Many of our secretarial assistants are struggling financially. As someone who lives in Galway city where the rents are so high, I know that it is an absolute struggle for my own secretarial assistant and no doubt for other secretarial assistants in that constituency and in similar areas. This goes to the heart of fairness and equity. I agree with Deputy Bríd Smith that it is embarrassing that we are on such a high wage relative to our secretarial assistants, many of whom are struggling financially and struggling to do the work they do every single day. We are all aware of the huge volume of work that comes in to every Deputy's constituency office every day. Our secretarial assistants are dealing with people in crisis, many of whom come to our constituency offices in floods of tears. They try to assist them with issues they may never have dealt with before. They do their best to assist people in any way they can.

My party colleague, Deputy Clarke, spoke in my slot on Tuesday and said that this should not be about money but let us face facts, this will not cost an enormous amount. The report will not have a monetary implication. There is something that happens on Report Stage in this Dáil that I do not fully understand but maybe that is because I am still quite new. Obviously I am hoping the Minister will support this amendment but I do not understand why the Government does not support amendments providing for the preparation of reports when the said reports could actually assist in the formulation of Government policy and in analysing specific issues. This amendment, tabled by Deputy Pringle, is welcome and cost should not be an issue here. In the grand scheme of things, the cost of this report would not be significant. This is about equity and fairness for those people who really are on the front line in our constituency offices. We should do everything in our power to assist them and to further their case. It is really good to see cross-party support in the Chamber for this amendment. I am sure Government Deputies are also acutely aware of the struggles of their own staff as a result of their low pay. It is great that we are having this debate today and I urge the Minister to consider this amendment favourably. I do not know why this report cannot be supported.

I have a question relating to what the Minister said in the Seanad yesterday. He said the commission "makes a proposal to me, as Minister, on issues such as grading, salary rates and so on, and I then make a decision on that proposal". I ask the Minister to detail how that actually works. Obviously we know the Oireachtas HR department had been dealing with the pay claim that was before the WRC on behalf of the commission. At the last conciliation meeting, the HR department said it could not negotiate pay, terms and conditions without the approval of the Department. At that point, the Department had failed to show up and now we are hearing the proposal for pay, terms and conditions must be brought to the Minister for approval. I am interested in hearing how that would work. I ask the Minister to confirm that the Oireachtas HR department, acting in its capacity as agent for the Oireachtas Commission, has the power to directly negotiate with workers and unions and then send the outcome of such negotiations to the Minister for approval or rejection. If this is the case, will the Minister commit to making the commission aware of the Oireachtas HR department's capacity to negotiate on its behalf in advance of the next conciliation meeting so that meaningful discussions can take place? It is good that this issue is being discussed in the House and Deputies have made quite cogent arguments as to why this needs to be addressed. I am interested in hearing the Minister's response because I missed the Second Stage debate on Tuesday.

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