Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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1883. To ask the Minister for Health the estimated cost in 2022 and in a full year of ensuring that staff working in the 300 section 39 organisations covered under pay restoration have their pay raised to parity with equivalent workers in public sector and section 38 organisations. [35699/21]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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Under section 39 of the Health Act 2004, the HSE provides financial assistance to organisations by means of a grant. Section 39 legally underpins the provision of services similar or supplementary to a service that the HSE may provide.

Staff in these section 39 organisations were not subject to the provisions of FEMPI legislation and therefore did not receive those cuts that were applied to the pay of public servants. They were not and are not party to the Public Service Agreements and are therefore not covered by the pay restoration provided for in these Agreements. While it is understood that pay savings were made by the organisations, the precise mix of pay cuts or other savings measures will have varied.

In October 2018, an agreement was reached by the parties at the Workplace Relations Commission in relation to a process of pay restoration for staff employed in a pilot group of 50 section 39 organisations who are funded by way of a Service Level Agreement (SLA). A further WRC engagement followed in December 2020 in relation to a final phase of 250 SLA funded organisations who were identified as part of the earlier agreement.

Pay restoration was applicable to Section 39 organisations who met certain criteria, rather than types of individual workers that are employed in them. The list of section 39 organisations that was compiled, included only agencies that had service arrangements in place back in 2013 and that were still under service arrangements in 2019. Only organisations who received in excess of an agreed, specified amount from the HSE by way of the Service Level Agreement process were included.

It must be acknowledged that Section 39 organisations are privately owned and run and that their terms and conditions of employment, once in line with employment legislation, are strictly between the employer and the employee. Consequently, it would be beyond the remit of the Department of Health to comment on terms and conditions of employment of a Section 39 agency, including pay.

For clarification, the purpose of the pay restoration agreement was to restore pay to similar levels prior to any cuts being imposed by Section 39 employers and not to achieve pay parity with equivalent workers in public sector and section 38 organisations.

I can also confirm that there is no scope to revisit the eligibility criteria for the process and that the process has reached a final resolution.