Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate that and I am delighted to hear there will be further talks and negotiations. If this issue is not dealt with, we will not see an end to this problem. There is a shortage of workers within the sector, so they will go to the agencies and organisations that can pay them more. They will do exactly the same work but be paid better. Several organisations have expressed concern. The IWA expressed concern directly after the unions accepted the deal. While it welcomed the pay increase for workers within its services, it did not feel it would actually address the pay disparity issue. Enable Ireland has expressed concern the money will not be sufficient to cover all the costs relating to the pay increase, such as PRSI and pension costs. These are ongoing issues that need to be addressed.

Many of these organisations get funding only yearly and find it impossible to plan and ensure sufficient funds going forward. The bottom line is the vital services section 39 organisations, in particular, provide impact upon the most vulnerable in society. In this regard, I give the example of a service user of the IWA service in Cavan, a 25-year-old girl called Kaitlin. She was born with Worster-Drought syndrome and she has epilepsy and cerebral palsy, so she cannot talk or walk. She has not been able to do so from birth. She did attend school and knows exactly what is going on. She loved to go to her service, which was available for three days per week at the time. She was promised 26 hours per week but that never came to fruition. She was attending for three days a week for a number of hours but she was told the service would be reduced to three days one week and two the next. The next thing, due to the number of staff off sick, she actually got no hours. Zoom engagements are no good to her because she cannot talk. She appreciates the visits but she is practically a prisoner in her own home because she cannot go to the service she enjoyed so much. Her mother is now practically a prisoner as well because she is her main carer. She cannot get out to do whatever she needs to do because her daughter needs full-time care and assistance at home. What is happening is directly affecting people and their families.

Staff in this sector did not get the pandemic unemployment payment or the recognition payment, despite all the work they did during the Covid pandemic. That was totally unfair.

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