Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Workers in section 39 agencies recently deferred their industrial action following strong encouragement from the Taoiseach's Government to convene at the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, to resolve outstanding issues regarding pay and conditions. These workers quite rightly feel like they are being treated as if they are somehow second-class. They deliver all the services that public servants deliver, but these workers do so without the same or comparable terms and conditions. It is deeply frustrating for them and their unions to find that the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, the Department of Health and Tusla are all refusing to attend the WRC. There will be no resolution to this issue until the decision-makers are in the room, and they will not be in the room until they get an instruction from the Taoiseach or the relevant senior Minister concerned. I ask, therefore, that the Taoiseach ask the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, the Department of Health and Tusla to make themselves available and to stop ignoring and disrespecting the third-party industrial relations machinery of the State.

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