Micheál Carrigy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State and wish her well in her role. I apologise for not congratulating her earlier. In her concluding remarks, the Minister of State stated that these issues have been resolved but the reality on the ground is that the issues of staff and increments have not been resolved.A significant amount of money is outstanding. I gave the figure earlier. It is over €1 million to which these staff members are entitled. They took these cuts during the downturn in the economy and they are entitled to the return of their increments. An organisation like St. Christopher’s Services that is reliant on a lot of local fundraising to run many of its services is not in a position to pay these increments to staff. It is incumbent on the State to pay them their increments and bring up their pay scales so that the organisation is able to maintain its staff levels. The reality is that if St. Christopher's Services is unable to do that and folds, the HSE will have to provide those services and the staff will be paid at a higher level. I am not happy with the answer. It is incumbent on the Department and the HSE to make sure that these pay scales are brought up.