Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change) | Oireachtas source

I agree with the last two speakers on the documentary last night on the O'Shea report but I want to raise the following issue. Earlier this month, we learned that health and social care staff with community and voluntary bodies are still awaiting pay increases agreed last October. I am referring to section 10, section 39 and section 56 workers. There was an agreement for an 8% pay increase and a commitment from the Government to work towards pay parity with public sector workers. Many workers have not received any increase at all. I am well aware of this because I sit on the board of the Canal Communities Local Drug and Alcohol Task Force. In general, funding for task force projects and posts has not increased since 2009. Many salaries were subject to cuts after the crash until 2021, when pay was restored to pre-2009 levels for some workers. I am told this is reflected across most HSE-funded organisations, where pay scales have fallen well behind those of the HSE that they were originally linked to. Pay scales and funding frozen at 2009 austerity levels, or even pre-2009 cut levels, are a disaster for workers and those relying on the services. There are no pay protections, no pay parity, no pay equality, no job security and no pensions or other benefits that their public sector counterparts receive. It is an absolute disgrace. Kevin Figgis of SIPTU stated, "The night we agreed the deal [in October 2023], the Government side were saying it would apply to in excess of 2,000 organisations." He added:

They are now saying they are engaging with a little over 1,000 agencies and we are going: 'What's happened to the rest of them?'

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And what we have now is people who weren't even in the room that night telling us what was intended, which is unacceptable. We are not going to have the deal reimagined by people who weren't even there when it was agreed.

He added that there is an ongoing attempt to minimise the number of people who benefit from the deal and any future restoration of the pay link with equivalent public sector staff. From everything I have seen, I agree with him. This is a broken system. These workers are essential to the communities and people who rely on them. Many of the services in question should be provided by the public sector but are instead left to the voluntary sector, which is woefully underfunded.

This system is failing on its own merits as the funding streams struggle to see the implementation of a pay deal agreed last October. We need immediate action from the Government to ensure pay increases are passed on. The long-term effects throughout services and the risk of further strike action – action diverted last October as a result of Government inaction – are a disaster for workers and service users. These workers are central to the most vulnerable in our society. They do invaluable work and the Government is treating them like dirt. I refer in particular to community prison links workers paid through the Department of Justice, workers in the youth projects paid by City of Dublin ETB, Dublin City Council-funded workers and the HSE grant aid project staff, who have not even received the 2021 pay restoration payments. What action is the Government taking to ensure the workers of all 2,000 organisations covered by the 2023 deal will receive the pay increases they are entitled to with immediate effect?

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