David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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1648. To ask the Minister for Health if there will be additional budgetary implications in 2023 to implement pay restoration for workers in section 39 organisations. [29882/22]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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Under Section 39 of the Health Act 2004, the HSE provides financial assistance to organisations to provide services similar or supplementary to a service that the HSE may provide. However, Section 39 organisations are privately owned and run, and staff in these organisations are not public servants. Their terms and conditions of employment, once in line with employment legislation, are strictly between the employer and the employee.

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). Pay restoration commenced in April 2019 with an annual pay increase of up to €1,000. Any outstanding balance was paid in 2020 and 2021.

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. A payment arrangement consisting of three phases was agreed with the first two payments to be made in 2021. The third and final instalment of the Pay Restoration for the 250 eligible Section 39 organisations is due in 2023, at a projected cost of €4.75m.

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. There is no scope to revisit the eligibility criteria for the process and the process has reached a final resolution.