Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This is not just done in Ireland. The NHS provides services through hospitals with royal charters and has done so since its establishment. In France and Germany, nearly one third of public health services are provided through voluntary bodies that have an agreement with the state payer. It is similar in Australia. One would have go to eastern Europe 30 years ago to find a set of public services that were only run by the state and excluded the private sector, voluntary bodies, charities and NGOs, and that is not something we want to do. We acknowledge the issue raised by the Deputy, namely, that there are staff working in section 39 bodies who are at a disadvantage compared to people doing the same work in a HSE-provided body. That is unfair and is something we want to rectify, first, by making sure the block grants of those bodies are adequate to cover the pay increases that will be paid in the public sector, which is only fair and, second, we will at least make an effort with the hospices to move them from section 39 to section 38, which is quite a complicated process when pension arrangements and so on are taken into account but is something we have committed to do.

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