Joe Flaherty (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

In anticipation of a budget increase for the Department of Rural and Community Development, could we ensure that pay for staff in public participation networks, PPNs, is regularised? It would take just €1.5 million to bring PPN staff in line with their peers, such as community development partnership co-ordinators and sports partnership co-ordinators. In many cases, they are peers working in the same buildings but PPN staff are expected to work for reduced rates. Currently, the PPN support worker is a temporary grade 3 contract. It must be made permanent and upgraded. It is in contrast with our new integration units where we have a grade 7 co-ordinator, two grade 6 support workers and one clerical officer at grade 4. If we take Longford as an example, after ten years our hard-working co-ordinator is still at grade 5 and the support worker is a temporary grade 3. The Minister of State, Deputy Joe O'Brien, is well aware of the work they do in Longford, so I do not need to point it out. The Longford service operates with a paltry budget of just €25,000 to €30,000.

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