John Perry (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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Question 98: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children if her attention has been drawn to the concerns of registered nurses working in the intellectual disability sector in which the dedicated professional, the registered degree level nurse working in the intellectual disability sector, is paid significantly less than an unqualified assistance house parent nurse or house parent; her views on whether the registered nurse is the only professional whose syllabus and curriculum of education is fully focused on the person with intellectual disability across their total lifespan and is fully equipped to play the lead role in managing and delivering services to the person with an intellectual disability and their families when they practice a bio-social model of care which encompasses residential, day care, respite, supported employment and community based services; and the steps she has in place to redress this anomaly. [3324/05]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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There are a range of professionals and support staff involved in the provision of services to persons with an intellectual disability. Agencies operate different models of care and services are provided in a multidisciplinary setting. The model of care utilised by an agency is influenced by the particular ethos of the body and the wishes of the families and individuals who use the service. Some services are nurse-led while, in others, social care staff have a key role in the provision of services. Registered Nurses Intellectual Disability, RNID, has followed a curriculum that equips its members to provide stimulation, emotional support, and nursing care for persons with an intellectual disability, of all ages and abilities, in all settings — residential and community. It emphasises the importance of working with other professionals as well as family members, in planning and implementing the therapeutic programme of care, to ensure that each person receives appropriate assistance and direction in providing for needs that cannot be met independently and in developing greater independence. RNIDs and other health care staff in the ID sector provide a very important service which greatly enhances the lives of clients of these services.

In regard to the pay issue the position is as follows. The final report of the Joint Committee on Social Care Professions made recommendations in relation to pay and grading structures for child care workers. The pay recommendation provided for increases of 17% to 27% for houseparents-child care leaders and assistant houseparents-childcare workers in the residential sector. The benchmarking body (PSBB) referred to this report and recommended that these increases be extended to similar grades in the intellectual disabilities sector, IDS. In March 2004 the Labour Court considered a claim from the Alliance of Nursing Unions for a 10.55% pay increase for nurses working in the intellectual disability sector, to restore a 'differential' that existed between nurses and social care professionals prior to the determination of the public sector benchmarking body.

While the Labour Court accepted that Registered Nurses Intellectual Disability, RNID, had traditionally been paid more than social care professionals, it stated that no formal pay differential existed between the two grades. The court noted that an understanding had been reached at the Labour Relations Commission on 3 September 2003 between the employers and the Alliance of Nursing Unions, and that both parties had accepted that the report of the PSBB severed all pay links and established new absolute levels of pay for benchmarked grades. There was also an acceptance that any future benchmarking exercise, or whatever subsequent arrangements are put in place for determining public service pay, is the appropriate forum to examine the position of RNIDs vis-a-vis other social care professionals. The court also noted that this understanding was rejected by members of the Alliance of Nursing Unions leading to the referral to the matter to the court.

The court issued its recommendation on 1 April 2004. Having considered the written and oral submissions, the court was of the view that the claim could not be dealt with outside of the established agreements. Accordingly the court recommended that the matter be dealt with in accordance with the understanding reached between the parties at the conciliation conference on 3 September 2003 and that it be given priority in this exercise.

A further benchmarking exercise will commence in the second half of 2005 and this will provide an opportunity for nurses' unions to make a case on behalf of the RNIDs.