Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for the question. I acknowledge the work of CE supervisors. We have about 1,200 supervisors and assistant supervisors across the country. They are one of the most embedded and connected groups of community workers, broadly speaking, we have across the country. My Department has been engaging with the unions during the year. The supervisor union's representatives have engaged with the Workplace Relations Commission. The Department has been invited to the Workplace Relations Commission and I am minded to take up that invitation. However, we need the sanction of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform to do that. There is not much point in us walking into the Workplace Relations Commission unless we have the backing of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. While we are doing this, we may as well include the supervisors for Tús and the rural social scheme rather than doing it in bits and pieces over the next few years.

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