Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 30 April 2024
111. Deputy Brendan Smith asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if additional funding will be provided to an association delivering services to persons with a disability (details supplied) to enable it to increase remuneration for employees to assist with recruitment and retention issues; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19213/24]
View answerI am aware of the staffing issues the IWA is facing. These issues are reflective of challenges affecting the wider health and social care sector, and impacting on the ability of the HSE and other providers like the IWA to deliver services.
To support the ability of organisations like the IWA to recruit and retain staff, the Department and its agencies proactively engaged with a Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) process with unions representing staff in Section 39 disability organisations, as well as other providers.
The agreement reached last October, delivered a significant increase in funding to these services, amounting to a phased 8% increase in funding for pay for staff in these voluntary organisations. An additional €41m has been made available to the HSE in 2024 to meet the full year cost of this increase for disability service providers.
The HSE has already made significant payments to qualifying organisations, and has deployed dedicated resources to work with employer organisations to expedite payments, so that their staff can be paid the increases funded under the WRC agreement.
The Irish Wheelchair Association (IWA) submitted a funding application to the HSE on Saturday 13th of April. The validation process is at an advanced stage and the HSE will begin issuing funds to IWA this week. These funds are in addition to the Interim payment already issued to IWA earlier this year, as part of this process.
I have also been informed that the IWA has recently undertaken a recruitment campaign to fill its vacant positions, in Cavan especially.
In addition to this, under the leadership of Minister Anne Rabbitte, an Interdepartmental Workforce Steering Group has been established focused on identifying solutions and directing efforts to address workforce supply needs in all sectors of Disability Services.
