I welcome the opportunity to raise this issue which is of vital importance to thousands of families and home helps throughout the country. I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Moffatt, for being here to listen to my concerns but I am disappointed the Minister could not make time to be here.
As everyone knows, home helps are paid a miserly amount. There is no unified structure across the country — each health board pays a different rate and no health board pays home helps anything like a fair rate for the important work they do. The North-Eastern Health Board pays home helps £2.20 per hour, the Western Health Board pays £2.42 per hour, and, in my area, the Southern Health Board pays the miserly and insulting sum of £2 per hour.
I pay tribute to the commitment and dedication of home helps who do tremendous work. They are predominantly women, they do a fantastic job which is of great benefit to the community and provide an invaluable service to thousands of sick and elderly people. The Labour Party believes they deserve fair play and a fair rate of pay, and I demand that the Minister tells the House the action he intends to take to resolve this vital issue. He commissioned an independent study on the pay and conditions of home helps, which was to be conducted with the assistance of the National Council on Ageing and Older People and it was to be on his desk this summer. What action does he intend to take on foot of this important report? He cannot delay any longer. He must act now to ensure funding is released to each health board to ensure home helps get the pay they deserve for the work they do.
The Minister has been in office for 15 months and has had ample time to deal with the issue. To date his only reaction has been to delve into history and to blame past Administrations for the pay of home helps. This attitude is not good enough and will no longer fool the people. The buck stops with the Minister and he cannot try to avoid this issue.
The Labour Party and I believe the rate of pay for home helps must be increased without delay to at least £4.20 per hour. This is the minimum wage rate which the National Minimum Wage Commission recommended should be paid to workers throughout the country, and which the Government has accepted; however, we are still waiting for concrete action. It is disgraceful that home helps should struggle to make ends meet on £2 per hour when the Government has an excellent report which states the least a worker should be paid is £4.20 per hour. There is real anger in the community about this issue. We do not want to hear fine words about future intentions but that the Minister accepts the position and will provide justice for home help workers.
