Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I want to acknowledge, first, that the tragedy in Cresslough overshadows all other issues and matters that we are going to deal with in this House today.

However, I would like to raise the plight of many thousands of people across this country, who work for independent non-State agencies in the care, community and voluntary sectors. I refer to section 39, section 10 and section 56 workers and all of those in the community sector who need a pay rise. They are among the heroes of Irish society, filling the gaps left where the State has been incapable of providing. It is no exaggeration to say that without their work, many of society's most vulnerable members would be left disconnected from communities. We know they provide vital services across the State, supporting those suffering from mental health crises and extending a helping hand to people who have lost their homes. Without a winter eviction ban, there may well be more of those people needing their help. Such workers give support and advice to those victimised by sexual and domestic violence. Yet, despite their immense value to society, care workers are not valued as they should be. Many have not seen a pay rise since 2008, nearly 15 years ago, and too often lip service is paid to them with no material improvement to their pay and conditions.

Many of us stood in the streets and applauded vital health and care workers during the darkest days of the Covid pandemic, but we know that applause will not pay their bills. Indeed, they are among the 100,000 non-HSE staff who still have not been paid the Covid bonus promised to them in January, in recognition of their work on the front lines of Ireland's pandemic response. Nursing Homes Ireland, NHI, handed in letters to the Department of Health at 12 noon today, looking for their payments. It is just not fair that they have still not received those payments. Their work is comparable to that of workers who are directly employed by they State, but unlike trade union members in the public or private sector, care workers in the voluntary sector have no way to negotiate a pay increase at present. Up and down the country, in recent months, they have taken to picket lines to highlight this inequality and disparity in treatment. Because their contracts are not made directly with the State, Government Ministers have been able to claim, repeatedly, that the dispute and the issue around pay and conditions has nothing to do with them.

We, in Labour, want to address that inequality to ensure that there is redress for those workers who are providing such vital care and community services. Tomorrow, we will bring forward a motion proposed by my colleague, Deputy Duncan Smith, to reverse the policy which excludes these care workers from mechanisms like the public sector pay agreements. We are calling on the Taoiseach and his Government to support our initiative. We are asking for Government Deputies to back this important motion to see equality for those providing vital care and community services. Indeed, I raised the issue with the Tánaiste last Thursday and he said then that €100 million in once-off funding for section 39 organisations would cover the cost of pay rises. I ask the Taoiseach to confirm that workers will get pay rises in accordance with that, and in line with their colleagues who are working directly for the State.

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