Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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The Health Service Executive (HSE) provides financial assistance to organisations by means of a grant under section 39 of the Health Act 2004 for the provision of services similar or supplementary to a service that the HSE may provide.  In 2022, the HSE provided in excess of €675m to Section 39 providers for Specialist Disability Services. I acknowledge the hugely important role these organisations and their workers play in our health and social care services. They are essential in providing services to many families and vulnerable people in society.

These organisations are privately owned and run. Their terms and conditions of employment, once in line with employment legislation, are strictly between private sector employers and their employees. While they are private organisations, I recognise their sustainability, and ability to pay staff, is highly dependent on state funding.  

While my Department and the HSE have no role in discussions on the payment of increments between service providers and their staff, I am aware of the sector's ongoing challenges in the recruitment and retention of staff. These challenges are mirrored in many of the caring and public facing professions across the State.

Notwithstanding that the employees of Section 39 organisations are private sector employees with no employment relationship with the HSE or my Department, a process of engagement to examine the pay of workers in community and voluntary organisations was committed to by the Government in October last year and we remain fully committed to the process.  

On 17 April, 15 May and 28 June, officials from my Department, the HSE, Tusla and the Department of Health met with union representatives under the auspices of the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC). This is an ongoing independently facilitated process and I want to see matters effectively and quickly resolved in the interests of services users, workers and providers.