Seán Kyne (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

That was on the record. Situations were brought to people's attention relating to masks not being worn and people not adhering to guidelines and treating staff in an inappropriate manner. That is wrong.

It was reported in the media that we sought sanction for additional staffing for the Houses of the Oireachtas for the coming years, some of it related to translation services and some related to additional committee work. I am not sure whether the Minister has approved those. I believe 111 extra staff were sought over a three-year period. It is a considerable increase in staffing, but we were putting an extra workload on the staff of the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission. All the time, we seek new committees or additional services. That was the request and I understand there was a business case put forward for each of those positions to the Minister. I am sure the funding of the positions was included in the request for funding over the three-year period.

I agree with everything the Minister said regarding the secretarial allowance positions. Senator Wall would have received updates from the commission as well regarding the status of talks with the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC. We had a discussion previously on the Order of Business and there was unanimous support for the important role played by secretarial assistants, SAs, the changed role they have and the fact that, for Senators, the SA is effectively our PA. They do the work of parliamentary assistants in the Dáil, everything that is expected of them and that is not reflected in the salary or pensions that they receive. As the Minister stated, the matter is back with the WRC and it is important an appropriate settlement is reached and that we value the role of our SAs and recognise the enhanced role of Seanad SAs that has not been reflected in the salary they receive.