Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 23 February 2023
3. Deputy Paul Donnelly asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development the steps being taken to deal with the retention of staff in community development projects in view of the fact that large numbers of staff are leaving to fill roles in the HSE and in local authority-run projects; and if there is a plan to introduce pay parity to encourage more people to join the sector. [9207/23]
View answerWhat steps are being taken to deal with the retention of staff in community development projects in view of the large number of staff who are leaving to take up roles with the HSE and local authorities? Is there a plan to introduce pay parity to encourage more people to join the sector and, importantly, to retain those currently working in the community?
Sustainable, Inclusive and Empowered Communities, the Government's five-year strategy to support the community and voluntary sector, was published in 2019. It is a whole-of-government strategy led by my Department and implemented collaboratively with the sector by means of the cross-sectoral group on local and community development. The strategy is important in seeking to strengthen the community development, local development and community and voluntary sectors generally. It reaffirms the Government's commitment to supporting the sector while also recognising the reality of finite resources and the need to ensure that available resources are focused on providing effective services.
The strategy includes a commitment to develop a sustainable funding model to support the community and voluntary sector. Specific actions included in the strategy are the promotion of multi-annual funding approaches by Departments and agencies, appropriate cost recovery models to cover the costs of compliance, support for autonomous community and local development organisations and sustainable funding models to support community and social enterprises.
My Department is aware of the challenges facing organisations in the local and community development sectors when it comes to the recruitment and retention of staff. Community and voluntary organisations are funded by a wide range of Departments and agencies through different funding schemes and programmes. Although my Department provides funding to some community and voluntary organisations, there is no national pay agreement for the community and voluntary sector as a whole. The Department of Rural and Community Development does not have a mandate to set pay rates for what is a wide array of diverse and independent organisations, most of which get funding directly from other Departments.
That is part of the problem. There is no one Minister with an overarching role in respect of community development. Anywhere we go, we hear about the deep concern regarding job recruitment and retention. The simple fact, however, is that funding provided for salaries in the community development sector simply do not match what the State, through local authorities and the HSE, is offering. According to a report, a community organisation seeking funding to retain a highly skilled worker found that doing so was not worth the effort because it could not match the €15,000 gap in what was being offered. Another report states that the salary gap between the amount community development projects have been funded for community workers and what the State is offering is between 12% and 14%. That is unsustainable for projects. There are reports that there are approximately 1,000 unfulfilled community sector jobs at the moment. If this is not sorted out and pay parity is not achieved, there will be no community development organisations.
When we refer to community and voluntary organisations, we are referring to a variety of groups that get some, if not all, of their funding from different Departments. That is what makes it difficult from our point of view. No one Department can offer any kind of overarching guarantee.
We have been working to improve conditions for the programmes over which we have direct control. As the Deputy probably knows, the recast community services programme has seen increases to the wage contribution we make. We are implementing a lot of reforms and restructuring of other programmes to improve the situation there. We will be supporting the national support structures for public participation networks, PPNs. PPN support workers got a salary increase this year. I have introduced several new grassroots community development programmes in the past couple of years and conditions there are in a different arena.
I take the Deputy’s point. I, too, have heard anecdotes on the matter from local development companies on the ground. It would be good to get a handle on the data and hard facts in terms of the flows of people.
The facts are there. It is clear that the funding gap is approximately 12% to 14%, depending on which project is involved. There are section 10s, sections 56s and section 39s, in addition to programmes that are directly funded by the Department. This funding is critical for community development because it is a very specific sector and role that covers a plethora of different services, projects and needs within communities. The Minister of State sits at the Cabinet table. I ask him to raise at Cabinet the crisis in staff retention and recruitment in the community sector. The Government should look at a strategy, possibly a national pay agreement, or agree to look at what we and the Government can do regarding a national wage agreement for community development workers that will cover all such workers, no matter what section or area they work in.
I will mention two things that might be useful in this space. For a couple of years, we have funded an all-Ireland standards body on community development work. That body is grappling with the issue I mentioned, namely, different understandings of community work. Community development is a very particular kind of work and that body is trying to get a little consistency across the board in that regard.
I will mention another important document. Last year, the Cabinet - and the Government in its entirety - approved a values and principles document on how the Government has agreed to engage with the community and voluntary sector as a whole. Every Department has signed up to that. I bring it up at every opportunity because it is quite a significant document. It did not get loads of publicity but every Department has signed up to it. It has six key principles: respect, subsidiarity, harmonisation, value for money, implementation and collaboration. If the spirt of that values and principles document was brought out a little more, it might help to address the issue the Deputy raised.
