Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity)
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133. To ask the Minister for Health when section 39 workers will begin receiving equal pay for work in line with their counterparts in the public sector; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [9943/25]

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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The Government recognises the pivotal role that staff in community and voluntary organisations play. The State depends on them to deliver the many essential services that are required across the country every day.

Staff working in these sectors should be appropriately recognised and remunerated, and 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 services within the sector.

Following extensive negotiations between Government Departments and unions an interim agreement was reached in October 2023 which saw an investment by Government that facilitated an 8% uplift in pay for staff working in organisations funded via a Section 39 arrangement. To date in excess of €90m funding has been released, resulting in pay uplifts for over 27,000 workers in 640 organisations. These funding uplifts continue to be processed by the HSE as eligible organisations submit their applications.

Acknowledging that the pay of some workers in community and voluntary organisations, had fallen behind equivalent grades in public sector organisations, and in order to build on the interim agreement of October 2023 talks resumed in June of last year to further look at pay of workers in the context of the Public Service Agreement 2024-2026.

There has been considerable engagement between the parties over the last number of months, and following a short break, talks resumed in the WRC on Monday 3^rd March. While agreement has not yet been reached, meaningful progress was made, and a further engagement is due to take place on Friday 7th March.

Experience tells us that dialogue is the only path to resolution, and I would encourage all parties to focus on engagement through the available channels.