Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I listened to the opening remarks of the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, and one thing missing was that at this stage people working in the community services do not need more platitudes. They need to be treated with respect and parity. We know what they do. We know what section 39 workers do in Ability West and the Irish Wheelchair Association, IWA, in the constituency I share with the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte. People there were out protesting the week before last to try to highlight the issue they are facing. To add insult to injury, last January it was announced that a bonus of €1,000 would be given to front-line health workers. The people working in Ability West have had no sight of that payment yet, nor have those working in private nursing homes, even though this payment was promised. Something is amiss in this situation and we must get it right.

In addition, if people have been working for the last 14 years without a pay rise, then something is wrong. This is not, however, all about pay rises. It is about engaging with people and treating them as equals so they can engage under the auspices of the Labour Relations Commission with their representatives and reach a situation where all these things can be addressed. What happens is that Departments announce money is going into a fund for something, but this is not dealing with the core issue. In fact, the pay for workers should be removed from the capital costs required to run the services and treated separately. This is fundamental.

I have been involved in many community organisations in my area. Concerning the rural social scheme and the meals-on-wheels scheme, and all these types of schemes, I have seen the actions they undertake and the bonuses they bring to communities. I have seen the way our towns and villages and our community facilities are being maintained. We invested taxpayers' money into these community and sports facilities, and this is all great. Ultimately, however, the people who keep these facilities right and sustainable are these workers and supervisors who manage the whole process. I guarantee one thing, and the Minister of State will understand this point, and it is that the local authorities do not have a pot to pee in, never mind the wherewithal to maintain all these villages. They are relying on these people and these supervisors to keep the countryside the way it is.

We have something that is working well. It is working very well and providing something badly needed. What we are going to do ultimately, though, is to drive these schemes into the ground and ruin this model. Will the local authorities then have the funding to take on what the people in these schemes are doing now? They will not. Will the HSE or the Department of Health have the money to undertake these activities? They will not. This comes back to one thing and that is respect for what people are doing. Platitudes are finished with. We need to think about these schemes completely differently. We must ensure that any money we spend on the pay of people providing these services is not seen as a cost but as an investment in these services.

If we do not put this investment into these schemes, then we are going to lose many more of the key people now working in the services and we will end up with no new recruits joining. They will not touch them with a 40 ft. pole. We will have got rid of them by natural stealth. There is an urgency regarding this matter. It needs to be dealt with now. I keep repeating that what people want is respect. People came to Dublin to talk to us about this issue. These are people who went on the picket lines. They do not want to be doing that. Instead, they want to do what they like doing every day, which is managing the facilities, the community areas, the countryside and looking after people who are vulnerable. I refer to people like those in Ability West and the IWA. Let us get this right for once and for all.

See this speech in context