The children's disability network teams are sometimes made up of staff who are HSE employees and other times involve workers from Enable Ireland. The latter are section 39 workers and are on lesser pay and conditions than the former. There is a big impact as a consequence of that because teams that are staffed by section 39 workers are having much more difficulty in recruiting people as a result of the fact that inferior pay and conditions apply. This is having serious consequences.

To give the Taoiseach an example, Ciaran is now eight years old. He was told that he needed a key worker and specialist professional support for his autism in 2018. He only got his key worker this year and he still has not received any services because the team does not have the staff. This issue needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency.

I thank the Deputy. As he will be aware, people who work for section 39 bodies are not public servants. They are not Government employees-----

They are doing the same job.

-----so they do have different terms and conditions, even when they are doing the same job. As we know from the hospices, we have successfully brought a number of hospices from section 39 to section 38 status. When you do that, it turns out to be much more complicated than people think. While some people may have lesser terms and conditions, others will have better terms and conditions. There are also different pension arrangements. It is never quite as straightforward as it may seem. Removing the autonomy from those bodies and requiring them to apply public service pay scales and pension rules means that there are winners and losers. That is one of the complications of moving the section 39 bodies into the section 38 space.

What are we going to do about it?