On my own behalf and that of my party, I wish to express our deepest sympathies for the families of all those who were murdered or injured in Las Vegas. It was an appalling atrocity with so many innocent people mowed down. At times like this, we are reminded of the extraordinary role of first responders in situations like this and we salute them and their courage in assisting. One hopes that common sense will ultimately prevail and that gun laws in the US are changed. It is extraordinary how so many deadly weapons can end up in the hands of one individual.

The hospice movement is one of the most cherished areas of care in our country. Uniquely among our health services, it enjoys almost universal approval. The ethos of care, empathy, dignity and space for families to be with their loved ones is quite remarkable to experience. Over the past number of decades, the advances in palliative care have been quite remarkable encompassing short-term respite, community-based care and end-of-life stage care. We all know that communities throughout the country have helped to sustain them and have fundraised for and supported them. Yet the Government is treating these organisations and others throughout the country in a hard-hearted and deeply cynical manner by, in the first instance, refusing to allocate sufficient funding to them but, worse, compounding that by refusing to allocate funding to cover pay restoration for staff working in these institutions as per the public service pay agreements.

During the FEMPI negotiations and the cuts to public service pay, these institutions were told that they had to cut their workers' pay in line with HSE employees. However, they have been given no funding whatsoever to cover pay restoration. These include highly respected centres such as Marymount hospice in Cork, Milford Care Centre in Limerick, St. Joseph's Hospital in Raheny and Galway hospice, which I visited recently.

It is not only hospices. There are hundreds of other organisations across the country in a similar situation which provide disability services, addiction counselling, services for carers, organisations such as Barnardos and Barretstown camp for young children with cancer, the Disability Federation of Ireland, the Diabetes Federation of Ireland and as many as 768 others. The Minister's reply to parliamentary questions on this subject is deeply cynical and dishonest. He says that they were not subject to the FEMPI legislation which imposed pay reductions, or the provisions of subsequent public service agreements which provided for pay restoration. Many of these organisations depend on the community.

The Taoiseach added insult to injury some months ago by telling me that they would not get pay restoration but that he would not allow them to cut services either. It is not tenable. I ask the Taoiseach if the Government will provide necessary funding to enable hospices, disability organisations, elderly care organisations and many more to pay their employees the same rate of restoration that is allowed for in the public service pay agreement.

Before I answer, I join with Deputy Martin in offering my condolences and those of the Government to the victims and families of those killed and wounded in the recent attack in Las Vegas. In the face of such horror and tragedy, the Irish Government and people stand in solidarity with our friends and families in the United States. I leith a leithéid d'uafáis agus de thragóid, seasann Rialtas na hÉireann agus muintir na hÉireann lenár gcairde sna Stáit Aontaithe. It was not just an attack on the people of the United States but also on citizens from all over the world. I sent a message to President Trump yesterday to express the condolences of the Irish people to the people of America.

To answer Deputy Martin's question, everyone in Government, myself included, is aware of the wonderful work that the hospice movement does, not just in hospices themselves but also in hospice home care. We have been very supportive of the hospice movement and the budget for hospices and palliative care has increased every year for the last number of years. For my own part, I was very involved in ensuring that funding was secured for St. Francis Hospice in Blanchardstown so that it could open fully and serve my constituents and others from the north Dublin and Meath region. Deputy Martin knows that his former colleague, former Deputy Brian Lenihan, was essential in ensuring that we got State land on which to build that hospice. I was, in many ways, carrying on his work. He ensured that the land was secured, the community raised the money and, as Minister, I provided funding to open it fully. Castlebar hospice is now under construction. While it is not under construction yet, I know plans for the new hospice in Wicklow are now very advanced, and there are also plans for hospice units in Waterford and Drogheda. There is a definite need for one in the midlands too.

That shows real commitment and progress towards providing the option of people ending their days in a hospice where they can die in a dignified way, which is what I think people would want for their friends and loved ones rather than for them to die in a busy hospital ward. Hospice home care is also important, because very few people die at home now and I think many people would wish to die at home if hospice home care was available. That needs to be increased in the years ahead.

The issue the Deputy referred to relates to the law around section 38 and section 39 bodies. Section 38 bodies are considered to be part of the public service and therefore people who work in it are public servants, are affected by FEMPI legislation when it goes up or down, and have public sector pensions.

Those who work under section 39 provisions, often hospices, charities and other bodies, are not public servants. They are not bound by the rules that apply to public servants and, therefore, they are not directly bound by FEMPI legislation. When salaries are being cut or when salaries are being increased, they are not bound by the rules around public sector pensions. The way those bodies are funded is through a block grant from Government and those bodies have a lot of autonomy to decide how that money is allocated.

That, in essence, is the dishonesty of the Government's response. Correspondence to me states that as a section 39 body, they were instructed by the HSE to stay in line with the HSE pay scales and apply the cuts as per the Haddington Road agreement. All hospices were so instructed. All of them have communicated to the Minister in this vein, and the other organisations as well. It is not true to say that they were not governed by FEMPI legislation and that they did not have to implement pay cuts under FEMPI agreements. They did. In Marymount hospice, for example, there was a €300,000 deficit in 2017, and it will be higher in 2018. This is on top of a fairly low base, as it stands. In that hospice, for example, the stark statement is made that in its current model, Marymount is not a sustainable entity. I visited a Galway hospital recently and it is the same story there.

Words are cheap, but I would have to put it to the Taoiseach that the existing current base is inadequate. The Government's actions, in cynically trotting out this mantra that such organisation are not subject to FEMPI legislation and their employees are not public servants, is dishonest. Is the Taoiseach seriously suggesting that nurses in a hospice should get less pay than nurses in other parts of the health services or care staff in a hospice should get less pay than those in any other service? The Government is cynically exploiting the volunteers who are keeping these organisations going, from hospice to disability rights, across the board.

I have been told that hospice beds will be cut next year if this issue is not addressed. It is time to stop hiding behind that mantra, which is fundamentally dishonest. I ask that the Minister meet the organisations face to face and get this issue resolved because the current position is not sustainable for them and is doing a great disservice to their ethos and to the fact that they are so rooted and so generally applauded in the community.

I am not sure from where that instruction that the Deputy referred to came. It certainly did not come from the Oireachtas.

The Taoiseach knows where it came from. It came from the HSE.

The FEMPI legislation - the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interests Acts - is a direction from the Oireachtas to reduce pay and, because the legislation is now being unwound, the new FEMPI Acts require by law that public bodies increase pay and restore pay, and that is exactly what is happening.

However, the Deputy rightly stated there are differences in pay. There are differences in pay between the public sector and the private sector. This, if you like, is part of a third sector, a voluntary sector, section 39, which is not part of the public service, and that is where the issue arises.

They were told to take the cuts. It is dishonest.

We are now in the middle of an Estimates process. I am aware of this issue. The Deputy can be assured that section 39 bodies operating in my constituency and elsewhere, such as hospices, have been in contact with us. We are aware of this issue. It is something that will be discussed, and hopefully resolved, as part of the Estimates process.

The Deputy should bear in mind, because they are not public bodies, what will be increased is their annual grant. Exactly how that annual grant is distributed between pay, pensions, services and other matters is not controlled directly by Government.

As I said, that is a cop-out.

That is the law, under the Health Act.