Erin McGreehan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I want to welcome the main man, Gerry McGreehan, my dad, to the Seanad. It is a nice day for me to see my father sitting in the Visitors Gallery.

I want to highlight a local issue and then a budget issue. I note the end of an era. Seamus Murphy and Sons, a local petrol station that had been in business since 1959, closed on Saturday. Seamus senior, Niall and Seán have served the community of north Louth very well. I want to wish them and their family the very best of luck. They received a wonderful send-off from the community on Saturday evening at their petrol station and shop. There were cakes and everything. The community wished them all the best and thanked them for their friendliness and their service over the years.

I also want to raise the section 39 workers. It is a serious issue. We are at crisis point in this regard. We have health and community workers employed by community and voluntary sector employers, funded by the HSE and other State agencies across the country. I believe there are 5,000 workers in this situation at the moment. They are underpaid and undervalued. We really need to start looking at them because they are an integral part of our disability services, mostly. If we let them fail, I do not know how the State will pick up the pieces. It is disgraceful that the same workers are being discriminated against in one section by comparison with another section. These highly trained and very dedicated people are being undermined and undervalued. It is about time that the section 39 workers received equal pay and acknowledgement for the incredible work they do.