Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge the Minister's response. The Labour Party feels strongly that the key to filling vacancies is the issue of pay parity. The lack of this between section 39 organisations and the HSE, for instance, is having a major impact on the ability of these organisations and CDNTs to recruit. Does the Minister acknowledge that the joint statement by Fórsa, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO, and the Services Industrial Professional and Technical Union, SIPTU, in respect of the potential for the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, to engage in a process on the issue of pay parity and looking at the whole issue of pay, could have a positive impact in respect of this problem of recruitment and retention of staff? Can the Minister give us some indication as to whether the Government is sympathetic to those people working in section 39 organisations, in particular? Many of them are now being poached by the HSE because of better terms and conditions being available.

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