Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent)

In her original question, Deputy Cummins raised the fact that some CTCs have a clerical officer scale on which the first two points fall below the minimum wage. In May, SOLAS informed IACTO that the Department had no objection to points below the minimum wage being removed. I am happy to see that. In fact, I would be really disappointed if that had not happened.

To come back to the general point the Deputy is making, I understand what she is saying. I have to say again that these matters relating to recruitment and retention fall under the responsibility of the individual CTC boards and are outside the Department's operational remit. I hear what she is saying about the importance and value of the work and that funding must be appropriate for what is needed.

Due to the way this is all structured, and given the parameters, the ability of the Department is constrained in this regard. All I can say is that I encourage IACTO and CTCs to feed their concerns into the development of the revised operational guidelines. I know that SIPTU is seeking a pay increase to bring CTC staff pay in line with that of Youthreach staff and that IACTO supports the claim. Again, the Department cannot respond to SIPTU's request because those decisions must be taken by the CTC boards. While there were links historically between CTC staff, certain FÁS grades and Youthreach staff, they ended in 2009 with the FEMPI legislation. As the Deputy said, in 2022, SIPTU lodged a claim for Building Momentum increases with full retrospection. Although that was rejected by the management side, after a WRC hearing in June 2023 CTC staff were awarded a 5% pay increase funded from the Department's Vote. I heard what the Deputy has said.

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