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

The Taoiseach said earlier he cared about workers. Where is this Government's respect for 27,000 section 39 workers who look after the disabled, elderly and vulnerable and who still have not received the 8% pay rise agreed in the WRC and who still do not have the parity that was promised with workers employed directly by the health service? I was talking this morning to home care workers who are section 39 workers. They work in Ballymun with the vulnerable, people with dementia and people with disabilities. Some of them are getting a lesser hourly rate, and they are low-paid workers, than they were getting in 2008 when the austerity cuts were imposed on them. They have never had their pay restored. They have never got cost-of-living increases and they still have not got their 8%. What sort of respect is the Taoiseach's Government showing for 27,000 section 39 workers by not ensuring they get the pay increases they deserve?

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