I raise the issue of section 39 workers, some of whom are considering taking industrial action in the coming weeks because of the situation they are in. They cannot get a pay rise or increments. We all know and understand that the work they do is vital to our society. They work with people with disabilities, children with autism and so on. Most of them are professionals who are very qualified, such as nurses and other healthcare professionals. They do this work through a block grant that comes from the Government to the organisations and that block grant has stayed the same since around 2008. Those organisations therefore have huge problems retaining staff because the staff go off to other places where they can get increments and increasing salaries. The ones who are loyal and stay are on very poor wages and need an increase. In the budget, will the Government commit to providing some increments to ensure people in those positions, that is, section 39 workers, can have a future there?

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. Section 39 bodies and agencies are a very diverse group. They range from very big healthcare providers, hospices or disability service providers to some very small charitable groups with only a small number of employees. It is a complicated area. I think both the Deputy and Ministers across Cabinet would agree that in the real world, if the HSE is increasing its salaries, then healthcare and disability service providers that are section 39 organisations have to do the same or they will lose staff. That would apply in hospices as well. It is something we are going to examine. It would make sense to increase the block grant to take account of the fact that a public sector pay deal has just been done, which section 39 organisations will effectively have to pay. The difficulty we have as a Government is that we can increase the block grant but we have no guarantee that it will be passed on to staff.