Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Labour Party for bringing this motion forward. I welcome the opportunity to shine a light on the great work being done by those who work in our community sectors and to support them in their quest for a pay rise.

I recently received correspondence from Maire Jackman who works alongside Darren Nolan. They run a large community employment scheme in south County Wexford. There are 40 participants and it covers: Wexford town, Clongeen, Foulksmills, Fethard-on-Sea, Duncannon, Campile, St. Leonard's, Ballymitty, Wellingtonbridge, Ballykelly, Whitechurch, Dunbrody, New Ross and Tintern Abbey. This is much of south County Wexford. Participants vary in age, ability and experience. In addition to supporting participants in their work, the supervisors also take on roles including an element of counselling and the provision of psychological supports to those on the scheme who may be facing certain challenges. The participants on the schemes work in a variety of areas, such as childcare, caretaking, boatbuilding, administration, environmental work, pitch maintenance, trail maintenance and in administration for the Wexford Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, WSPCA. The role of the supervisor and the assistant supervisor varies from counselling, training and development, all human resource activity, health and safety, payroll preparation, Revenue returns, strategic management, procurement, budget planning and all financial activities.

In essence, they run all the aspects of a small-to-medium business on a very small budget. To quote directly, the email stated:

We do suffer from burn out but have no option but to keep going. Supervisors right across the country have to deal with some very serious situations in their working life. Many just give up as they burn out.

Our pay certainly does not reflect the level and depth of responsibility we have. We have not had a pay rise since 2009 so we are well below the level of pay we should have. Our workload has at the very least doubled. Any additional work was implemented unilaterally by the DSP and we have had no say and no training in any new processes and procedures and any feedback we give is falling on deaf ears.

The crux of the problem it seems when it comes to pay levels for these supervisors is highlighted in the next paragraph of the correspondence:

when any of our issues are raised in the Dail, the stock answer given is that the departments are not our employers, however they dictate every aspect of the work and use this line so that they do not have to give us any support in terms of pension or pay rises in line with inflation.

The buck passing is unfair from Government because it dictates almost every aspect of how these schemes are run and it is just using a technicality to avoid taking responsibility for supervisors' pay. It dictates the policies that should be implemented. It asks community schemes to do work that Departments should be funding more adequately, such as childcare, village work and drug rehabilitation, to mention but a few. The sponsors of these schemes are ordinary people who volunteer to run them but who have no access to funding other than from the Government. They are all fulfilling an important role on behalf of the Government. If the work was not done, then childcare would fail, villages would be in disrepair and drug rehabilitation schemes would close. The fantastic Helen Blake boatbuilding project would not run, Tintern Abbey's walking trails would not be developed and the WSPCA could not offer the services it can currently.

In light of this and what has been outlined, I hope the Government will not ignore the issue and pass the buck this time. It has agreed with this motion and to accept it, but I hope it will also take an active part in implementing it.

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