Rebecca Moynihan (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise the issue of the strike by section 39, section 56 and section 10 workers that is happening on Tuesday. Calling people section 39, section 56 and section 10 workers does not explain what they do. We are talking about people who provide essential services in the areas of health and disability, services to children and homeless services. They are going on what will be an indefinite strike on Tuesday following the breakdown of their talks at the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC. Why are they doing it? They are doing it because at the time of the financial crisis, they took the same cuts under the financial emergency measures in the public interest, FEMPI, that HSE workers took. Yet despite public sector workers getting a pay restoration, the section 39, section 56 and section 10 workers have yet to see that. We have seen the Government essentially decouple them and the essential State services they provide from HSE workers. It has opened up a gap in funding and earnings as big as 10% to 20%. People are leaving those services because of that pay gap. They are leaving those community services and the people they serve, particularly children, the elderly and some of the more vulnerable in our society. We have to have a debate in the House.I stand in full solidarity with those workers who are going out on Tuesday to strike.