Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Last week we had the budget. I think the Government told us it spent approximately €11 billion. Fair play. The issue with the community employment supervisors would take a fraction of a fraction of that money to resolve. Once again Government Deputies and, unfortunately, Senators decided they would not do this. This is a political choice. This is the point I made to community employment supervisors this morning. A political choice is being consistently made by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to deny these people a pay rise. Then we think about the work they do. These people are the glue that holds our communities together. They began to list all of the work they do and they could have spoke for the rest of the meeting. They provide meals on wheels services. These are the workers who were at the front-line during Covid. They tripled their output during Covid to ensure people got decent hot meals. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael were very happy to applaud them but not to give them a pay rise. That would be going too far. After 14 years of denial they have been left on poverty pay with no prospect of change.

Let us be clear. This is an eminently solvable issue. What it is lacking is the political will from the Government to finally tackle it. What is lacking is recognition of the crucial work these people do not only with meals on wheels but with the Irish Wheelchair Association, in community childcare where they play a massive role, with Enable Ireland, with Cheshire Ireland homes, in recycling, in housing associations and in hospices and hospitals. This is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of the work they do. I want the acting leader to acknowledge that this and previous governments have made the wrong political choices with regard to community employment supervisors. I ask for an urgent debate on the matter. I want to hear what people have to say on this topic so we can pressurise the Government to do the right thing. Frankly there is no excuse for 14 years of denying pay rises to some of the most important workers in our communities.