Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State and I appreciate that he cannot speak to the ongoing deliberations within the WRC but this is a welcome move. The supervisors, be it in Tús, RSS or in community employment, have not seen a pay rise since 2008, which is a long time. During that period, they have had additional workload and responsibilities because of the demand within the communities for the support of those schemes. In many cases, there has been a great deal more demand from the public and people in communities for assistance for various clubs and organisations that require and seek the support of all of these very important schemes on the ground. This is welcome and I hope that progress will be made without delay through the WRC.

There obviously will be a major role for the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform in all of this. It needs to be to the fore to ensure that whenever a deal is made that it is progressed as quickly as possible.

See this speech in context