Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Whichever payment is the higher can be claimed. That was my sense of it as well. I am sorry for that unusual intervention but it just occurred to me. I wanted to reassure myself.

I appreciate that the Minister of State has acknowledged, correctly, that the schemes are different in nature, although there are certain similarities. Having said that, I understand the rural social scheme and Tús supervisors have been in discussion with the Department and the Irish Local Development Network, ILDN, in the last three years through a tripartite forum. I believe the forum has agreed a work proposal that would broadly match increases in pay. I understand the principal officer dealing with the matter has presented the proposal to the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform for its consideration. While I would not say it has conceded in principle, the Department has at least a certain sympathy for this point. There is an understanding that pay parity would not be easy to achieve in one single claim but there is a need to bridge the gap in pay in a meaningful way. A meeting was due on 21 November but that date was pushed out. When will the next meeting take place?

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