Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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217. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth in light of the fact that section 39 workers are now balloting for industrial action, she will mandate her officials to allow them to fully implement the WRC agreement of October 2023, to provide for the resolution of outstanding issues on pay; if it is her intention to fully restore the link between section 39 workers and the public sector; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3933/25]

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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The programme for government commits to working with the voluntary sector through industrial relations mechanisms and other processes to progress pay issues that affect the delivery of disability services and the long-term viability of organisations within the sector.

The agreement reached at the WRC in October 2023 provided for an 8% increase in pay for staff in Section 39 organisations. As a result of this agreement, 149 Section 39 organisations providing disability services qualified for additional funding from the HSE to meet the terms of the agreement. 19,000 workers in community and voluntary disability services are benefitting from these increases.

Substantive talks resumed at the WRC last June and continued into November, when they were adjourned in the context of the General Election, as the process had become deadlocked due to the complexity of funding and employment arrangements across this diverse sector.

It is worth noting that the Departments had offered a further 8.5% increase in funding for pay through this process. Added to the increases agreed in October 2023, this would have provided for a minimum increase of 16.5% in pay funding over a 3½ -year period, if agreement had been possible.

I realise that some unions are currently balloting members for industrial action, I would encourage them to focus on engagement through the available channels as a resolution can only be reached through dialogue.