Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 8 February 2024
2. Deputy Ged Nash asked the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the reason for a pause in the increase to the minimum salary threshold in respect of the non-EEA general employment permit scheme for healthcare assistants; if he will consider the introduction of a JLC-ERO system to apply to healthcare assistants in the private nursing homes and home care sector; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5990/24]
Amharc ar fhreagraWill the Minister of State elaborate on comments made last week about the Minister’s decision to pause the increase that was due in minimum salary rates in respect of the general employment permit for healthcare assistants and home care support workers from non-EEA areas? Consequent to that, will he consider the introduction of a joint labour committee or employment regulation order system for those sectors?
Last December, I published the outcome of the review of the occupations lists for employment permits, which signalled the Government’s intention to increase the minimum salary thresholds for employment permits, including those associated with healthcare assistants and home care workers. The purpose of this change is to ensure fair treatment for employment permit holders and to allow them to qualify for the minimum threshold for family reunification.
While the Minister has agreed to a deferral of this policy change, he remains committed to increasing the minimum salary thresholds for healthcare assistants and home care workers. The basis of this decision is a recognition that the nursing home and home support sectors are bound by existing funding agreements and this will impact on their ability to meet the new minimum thresholds in the short term.
The nursing home support scheme is a long-established statutory mechanism through which private and voluntary nursing homes are funded. Under this scheme, nursing homes negotiate the prices they can charge for their services with the National Treatment Purchase Fund. The maximum prices for individual nursing homes are agreed with the NTPF and are based on cost criteria such as costs incurred by the nursing home, local market prices, historic prices and overall budgetary capacity. These prices are agreed for a contractually set duration.
This deferral is a short-term measure to ensure continuity of service for vulnerable members of our society while the pathway to achieving the new minimum salary threshold of €30,000 is agreed and implemented. To achieve this move as quickly as possible, a consultation process to agree a pathway to the higher salary threshold is being established and will seek the input of sectoral employers, advocacy groups and Departments.
As to the Deputy's second question, joint labour committees may be set up by the Labour Court following an application from either the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, a trade union or any organisation that represents the workers or employers involved.
It is therefore open to the representatives of workers or employers in any sector, including in the healthcare and home care sectors, to proceed to request the establishment of a JLC when there are grounds to believe that the representatives are willing to engage constructively in collective bargaining to address the working conditions and pay of employees in the sector.
I believe that JLCs provide an important opportunity for employers and workers to negotiate wages and terms of employment. I therefore encourage both employers and workers to engage in the JLC process where available. A sectoral employment regulation order provides wage certainty and security for employees and helps employers attract and retain talented employees. I remain strongly supportive of the JLCs and their contribution to a positive industrial relations environment.
I thank the Minister of State very much for his response and he has explained the rationale as to why what I describe as an exemption has been provided to the private nursing home sector for non-EEA healthcare assistants and home support workers. I accept the Minister of State's good faith and bona fides here. We engaged on this in another context in this Chamber last week.
From the media coverage surrounding this, it seems to me that Nursing Homes Ireland made the case that private operators simply cannot afford to meet this new €30,000 salary threshold if they do not get more money from the fair deal scheme. How have the Minister of State and his officials in the Department been satisfied that is the case? Has that claim been independently verified or has it just been taken at face value? How has the Department been satisfied that is the case? This is an exemption that does not apply to any other economic sectors which are required to meet higher salary thresholds from this month?
Just to be clear, this does not apply solely to the nursing homes sector. It also includes healthcare assistants and home support workers, so while it is obviously a provision for people who are in nursing homes, be they private nursing homes or independent nursing homes, it is also for those who provide care in the home and those who provide disability services, many of the recipients of which would not be classed as nursing home residents. It covers two broad professions.
We met Nursing Homes Ireland and representatives of Migrant Nurses Ireland, Unite the Union and others, and we had discussions with the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, and others. We did not make this decision on the basis of one submission from one body. We made this submission in advance.
Something I really want to underline for the Deputy, and this is not just a matter of good faith, is that this is an extremely temporary measure. Regardless of what is happening, this deferral, at the very latest will be changed on 17 January 2025, but I hope to achieve the minimum threshold long before that. We are working constructively based on the fact that work permits for healthcare assistants and home support workers were only brought in 2021 after a consultation process. We are using that model to achieve this as quickly as possible.
It looks like there is another increase due in January of next year and a subsequent increase is due in January 2026. That will take the threshold to €39,000. That is some leap from €27,000.
There is one way to resolve all of this and to obviate the need for deferrals at all. We know the private nursing home sector is simply synonymous with low pay and poor conditions when it comes to healthcare assistants and home care support workers. I made a case for the joint labour committee and the ERO system for a number of different reasons. It is a way that organisations, both trade unions and employers, can customise a solution for any particular sector where a JLC-ERO system would apply.
I saw in the media coverage earlier on this year that Nursing Homes Ireland referred to the State as the paymaster of healthcare assistants and of home support workers in the private sector. The Minister for children, Deputy O'Gorman, acknowledged there are additional state subsidies being provided now to, for example, the early years sector, but the quid pro quo is that it would enter into the JLC system based on increased subsidies. Should that not be the case for the private nursing sector and the home care support providers to be included in such a way?
To get to the nub of the question, a decision was made to make a temporary deferral. I have laid out in depth the reason for that here, in our previous discussion on a Bill, and indeed to anyone who has raised a direct question, and I believe Deputy Barry raised it on Questions on Promised Legislation. These deferrals are temporary. The minimum thresholds for work permits are set in all sectors where they apply. We are increasing all those minimum thresholds across the board. We have a very clear roadmap we hope and intend to achieve.
On healthcare assistants and home care workers, we are engaging frankly and openly with both employers and the representative groups to achieve this as quickly as possible. If a JLC is required and if we were to receive such a request, and we have not received a request either from employers or employees in that regard, we would, of course, proactively consider it.
