Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

First, I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. At the outset, that Labour's motion is very broad. At times it is not clear who, specifically, it is targeting. At one leap, it is almost as if every voluntary and community organisation would be made a public sector organisation, if one were to follow the entirety of the motion through to its logical conclusion. As the Deputy knows, quite a number of these organisations are private, appreciate their autonomy and would not necessarily want to come under public sector ownership or remit. We need to think this through. I acknowledge that there is an issue here. That is the first point. There is certainly an issue in terms of section 39 organisations or those that have a direct relationship with the State. The section 39 organisations are privately owned and run and have terms and conditions of employment for staff and so on.

Those arrangements would traditionally have been between the employer and the employee. However, we know that, in some instances, they are contracted with the State for the services they provide. Their employees are similar to those employed by State organisations, so that creates an issue in terms of the differential in pay. In acknowledgement of the particular difficulties they are facing this year with inflation, we have allocated up to €100 million to support section 39 organisations and nursing homes, as well as section 38 organisations, excluding acute hospitals. That is additional funding to help them cope until the end of the year with the crisis and cost-of-living issue.

Section 10 organisations deal with homelessness and housing authorities. They are separate organisations, not State organisations. The money that the State provides through section 10 funding goes towards the cost of services provided by front-line NGOs. The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage provides the framework that governs how those housing authorities operate. Additional funding of €21 million has been allocated this year, bringing the total to approximately €215 million.

The Labour Party motion also covers Tusla-funded organisations. Section 56(2) of the Child and Family Agency Act requires that Tusla determines the maximum funding it proposes to make available during the course of each year under each arrangement and the level of contracted service it expects to receive in return for that funding. Tusla's funding allocation has been increased for 2022.

The overall point is that we are talking about a vast number of people and organisations. The situation is not as simple as is being portrayed. That said, the Government will enter a process, as happened in 2019 at the Workplace Relations Commission. We anticipate getting into some process to try to sort this out once and for all.

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