Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

An often undervalued and ignored group of workers in our health service are the housekeepers and cleaners without whom our hospitals would not be able to function. As we learned during the pandemic, the need for infection control means that this is a job whereby people have to have many skills, a great deal of training, etc., in order to get things right. I raised this matter with the Taoiseach previously. In the past couple of days, the housekeepers have engaged in a campaign with their union, the Independent Workers Union, over the fact that they have been refused a change in the aftermath of the job evaluation scheme. They have been left on the same band they were on previously and have been denied the right to appeal a decision by the HSE over properly evaluating their work and giving them the value they deserve. They should at least have the right to appeal this decision over their job evaluation, which the HSE is currently denying them. I ask the Taoiseach to intervene with the Minister for Health on their behalf.

See this speech in context