Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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2. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if he has met with An Taoiseach and the Minister for Health regarding vacancies in children's disability network teams [15714/23]

Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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I ask the Minister what engagement he has had with the Taoiseach and the Minister for Health regarding the serious issue of vacancies that are arising in children's disability network teams, CDNTs, throughout the country where we know there is a significant vacancy rate of 31% at present within the section 39 organisations?

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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To answer the question very directly, I have not had a formal meeting with the Taoiseach or the Minister for Health since responsibility came over to my Department on 1 March on this specific issue. However, both myself and the Minister of State with special responsibility for disability, Deputy Rabbitte, and our officials, are engaging with all relevant Departments and stakeholders, such as the HSE and the relevant section 38 and 39 providers, on a range of issues to enhance capacity across children’s disability network teams. These measures include, probably most significantly, a revised draft of the Progressing Disability Services, PDS, roadmap, incorporating a range of measures to enhance recruitment and retention, and have been submitted to the Department for comment. A working group has been established comprising officials from my Department, the HSE, the Department of Health and the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, to increase the pipeline of clinical talent to fill the more than 600 funded vacancies in the CDNTs. In partnership with the CDNT lead agencies, the HSE continues to explore a range of options to enhance the recruitment and retention of essential staff in CDNTs.

This involves exploring new solutions designed to quickly and effectively recruit clinical path staff to increase capacity, including: sponsorship of students in the final two years of training; supporting 20 clinical psychology placements annually from September 2023; identifying and progressing the option of an apprenticeship programme; and identifying and progressing the option to employ new graduates on therapy assistant grades until CORU registration has been completed.

We had a meeting of the Cabinet committee on health on Monday, of which I am a member, as are the Minister for Health, the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste, where we discussed the issue of recruitment into the CDNTs. The Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, and I are acutely aware that there are many challenges in the area of disability that have moved over to my Department, but we all agree that filling the posts across CDNTs is up there at the top.

Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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I acknowledge the Minister's response. The Labour Party feels strongly that the key to filling vacancies is the issue of pay parity. The lack of this between section 39 organisations and the HSE, for instance, is having a major impact on the ability of these organisations and CDNTs to recruit. Does the Minister acknowledge that the joint statement by Fórsa, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO, and the Services Industrial Professional and Technical Union, SIPTU, in respect of the potential for the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, to engage in a process on the issue of pay parity and looking at the whole issue of pay, could have a positive impact in respect of this problem of recruitment and retention of staff? Can the Minister give us some indication as to whether the Government is sympathetic to those people working in section 39 organisations, in particular? Many of them are now being poached by the HSE because of better terms and conditions being available.

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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A range of issues is impacting on our ability to recruit new staff and retain existing staff across the CDNT network. Undoubtedly, pay is one of those. It is also fair to say that even in HSE-led CDNTs we are having problems regarding recruitment and retention as well. I do not think it is solely because of the pay differential between HSE-led and section 38- or section 39-led CDNTs. I do not want to minimise, however, the significance of this issue either.

As I mentioned earlier, one aspect in this regard is the roadmap in terms of progressing PDS. This sets out a range of issues we are examining in respect of addressing these crucial challenges in recruitment and retention. The Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, and I will obviously engage in respect of these wider issues in the context of pay, and obviously determinations on this level are also a matter for my colleague, the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, Deputy Paschal Donohoe.

Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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As the Minister sits in Cabinet, I am sure he has a view on these matters. Given there is clearly a major issue concerning the disparity in pay between organisations, CDNTs are not going to function until such time as, I respectfully suggest, pay parity is addressed. I refer to there being some signal from the Minister to us this morning to show he acknowledges that the pay differentials are significant and that this is having a knock-on effect concerning the ability to recruit. The very existence of section 39 organisations in the long term is now in question. They are losing capacity weekly and their ability to deliver services to the people they serve is being hindered as a result. I contend this is an emergency, it needs to be addressed and the WRC process needs to have the support of the Government.

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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As I said, the issue of recruitment and retention in CDNTs is the top priority for the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, and me. We will look to support all measures that we can see that will start to address the major issues in this context. I recognise that pay and the pay differential is part of this issue. We have seen that issues concerning organisations providing services to the HSE have been addressed in the past. I am thinking especially of the way in which the hospices have recently been addressed. The outcome of that process will be seen as a success. There is, therefore, capacity in this regard. The number of organisations in this regard is much larger and we must recognise this fact. As I said, however, the Minister of State and I will work within the Government to see what solutions we can achieve to address the pay concerns here and through that part of the mechanism address the overall lack of filling of spaces in CDNTs.