Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for raising this issue again and for his ongoing interest in the matter. It is a timely opportunity to update the House. The matter was considered by the parties at the recent public sector talks facilitated by the Labour Relations Commission at Lansdowne House. While there will always be a need for long-term residential care, older people consistently tell us that they want to be facilitated and supported to stay in their own homes and communities for as long as is possible.

The HSE will spend approximately €330 million this year on home help and home care packages. These services are provided directly by the HSE, private organisations or voluntary organisations funded by the HSE. Home help services are provided mainly by the HSE's directly employed staff. In the greater Dublin area, Wicklow and Clare, home help services are provided by voluntary providers on behalf of the HSE. These voluntary providers are funded under section 39 of the Health Act. The HSE has in place service-level agreements with these providers that set out the level of home help service to be provided for the grant to the individual organisation and requirements relating to standards of care.

As the home helps employed by these section 39 organisations are not HSE employees, the HSE does not determine the salaries or other terms and conditions to apply to these staff, including pension arrangements. Accordingly, such arrangements offered by individual providers will vary. The pay and superannuation terms and conditions of the staff concerned are not subject to the control of the Department of Health and they are not classified as public servants. The granting of any pension entitlement in such circumstances to private or voluntary sector employees would have wide-ranging implications for the taxpayer that go well beyond home helps.

Access for home helps in voluntary organisations to a pension scheme similar to that provided for home helps in the employment of the HSE has been the subject of a number of Labour Court recommendations involving SIPTU, IMPACT and the HSE. Implementation of the Labour Court recommendation on payment of a gratuity to the home helps employed by the section 39 organisations has been hindered in recent years by the budgetary situation and is further complicated by the fact that the HSE is not the employer.

I am pleased to confirm that the issue was discussed during the recent Lansdowne Road talks and that the parties reached agreement on a process for giving formal consideration to the matter. The parties agreed to establish with immediate effect a working group to examine a number of issues, including gratuity payments for home helps. The group, while operating under the aegis of the National Joint Council, is to arrange its first meeting within four weeks and is scheduled to conclude its business by 30 September 2015.