Written answers

Wednesday, 21 June 2017

Department of Health

Departmental Funding

Photo of Dara CallearyDara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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71. To ask the Minister for Health if his attention has been drawn to the issue whereby section 39 organisations have not received extra funding to pay their employees the extra €1,000 from 1 April 2017 as provided to regular public sector workers; his plans to rectify the issue; the timeframes involved; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26407/17]

Photo of Simon HarrisSimon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Section 39 of the Health Act 2004, provides that the HSE may ‘..give assistance to any person or body that provides or proposes to provide a service similar or ancillary to a service that the Executive may provide.’. Such assistance may range from contributing to the expenses incurred by that person or body to allowing them the use of an HSE premises. Financial assistance is provided in the form of a grant and the value of such grants can vary from very high to very low value.

Where the HSE provides a grant to a voluntary provider under Section 39, the HSE puts in place a Service Level Agreement with the provider. This sets out the level of service to be provided for the grant which they receive. It is important to note that any individuals employed by these section 39 organisations are not HSE employees. The HSE has no role in determining the salaries or other terms and conditions applying to these staff. It is an accepted fact that the staff of these Section 39 organisations are not public servants. This means that they were not subject to the FEMPI legislation which imposed pay reductions or the provisions of the subsequent Public Service Agreements which provide for pay restoration.

An increase in annualised salaries of those earning up to €65,000, by €1,000 was provided for in the Lansdowne Road Agreement. Originally, it was due to be paid from 1 September 2017. However, in order to address the anomalies which arose following the Labour Court Recommendation for certain Garda Associations, the Government agreed to bring this date forward to 1 April 2017 for those civil and public servants who did not stand to benefit from this Labour Court Recommendation. These were civil and public servants who had cuts imposed on them by the FEMPI legislation.

As outlined above, staff in Section 39 organisations are not automatically eligible for this salary increase. It is a matter for Section 39 organisations to negotiate salaries with their staff as part of their employment relationship and within the overall funding available for the delivery of agreed services.

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