As the Taoiseach knows, for a number of months I have been raising the issue of the lack of funding for section 39 bodies to restore pay in line with HSE employees. Many such organisations are involved in disability service provision, hospices and so on. Yesterday the Taoiseach told me that the Ministers for Finance and Health were working out which organisations had cut pay in line with the FEMPI legislation and those which had not. I have been raising this issue for months and would have thought the Ministers for Finance and Health would have been able to resolve the issue. It is with great disappointment that I heard today that SIPTU had run out of patience and announced an intention to ballot on industrial action. It is to ballot workers in RehabCare, the Cheshire Foundation, Western Care Mayo, St. Joseph's Foundation in Cork, SOS Kilkenny, the Cork Association for Autism, Ability West and St. Aidan's Hospital in Wexford This is a national issue. Why the allocation could not have been made in the original Estimates when the public service pay agreement was realised baffles me. There has been too much cynicism and too many delays in doing what is right and just in this case.

My answer is much the same as it was yesterday. We will work through this issue. The Ministers, Deputies Paschal Donohoe and Simon Harris, are working through the process and we will come to a resolution which is fair and just. As the Deputy said, the issue involves other sectors besides hospitals and concerns section 39 bodies more generally, including in the disability sector and other areas. What makes section 39 bodies different from section 38 bodies is that those working for them are not public sector employees or public servants. We are carrying out an exercise to understand how pay levels went up and down across the sector. Some bodies are compliant-----

They were instructed by the HSE to make the FEMPI legislation cuts.

Some bodies had been compliant with public sector pay rules, while others were not. Regardless of whether they were instructed to do so, some did reduce pay in line with the FEMPI legislation, while others did not. We need to understand this and map things out properly.