John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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1012. To ask the Minister for Health if the cost of the increase in the minimum wage from €9.15 per hour to €9.25 per hour and the cost of sleep-overs on assignments from €9.15 per hour to €13.49 per hour will be fully implemented by his Department; if the difference in the costs will be passed on to companies providing specialised services under contract to his Department to enable those companies meet their obligations; if his Department is in negotiations with such service providers at present; if service providers have applied for an increase in rates to meet the rising costs of providing such care; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20068/17]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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In September 2014, the Labour Court issued a recommendation that staff should be paid an hourly rate in respect of each hour spent on sleepover in excess of 39 hours and that these hours should be paid at a rate that is equal to the national minimum hourly rate. Separately, the Government, as part of Budget 2017, approved an increase to the National Minimum Wage with effect from 1 January 2017. This decision, therefore, provided for an increase to the hourly rate paid to those individuals who undertake sleepovers.

Under section 39 of the Health Act 2004, the HSE has in place Service Level Agreements with voluntary providers which set out the level of service to be provided for the grant to the individual organisation. Any individuals employed by these section 39 organisations are not HSE employees and therefore, the HSE has no role in determining the salaries or other terms and conditions applying to these staff, including rates of pay for undertaking sleepovers. Accordingly, such arrangements offered by each service provider may vary.