Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent)
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1238.To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the reason her Department has not implemented the recommendation of the Labour Court in relation to the National Advocacy Service; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [31106/24]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Firstly, let me reiterate that I value and acknowledge the important services that the National Advocacy Service for People with Disabilities (NAS) provides to adults with disabilities across the country.

As you will be aware, NAS is a company limited by guarantee and a registered charity. It is funded to provide services on behalf of the Citizens Information Board (CIB). CIB, in turn, is funded by my Department.

As I have said many times, all workers deserve fair pay for fair work. There is absolute agreement that NAS workers should be paid the same as demonstrable comparable roles in other CIB funded companies.

I understand that the Board of NAS, and CIB, following consultation with my Department, agreed to implement a Labour Court recommendation concerning NAS, in order to address pay divergences and to ensure that staff in NAS are paid the same as comparable grades in other CIB funded companies.

The only item remaining, in order to implement the recommendation, relates to what those roles should be and ensuring that they are comparable.

The union, NAS management and CIB agreed to participate in talks led by former Labour Court Chair Kevin Duffy to discuss implementation of this recommendation and these talks regrettably broke down without agreement on 5 July. During the talks a number of offers were put forward but these were unfortunately rejected.

I am encouraged by the positive development on 22 July which resulted in NAS confirming that they have suspended industrial action and that talks will recommence on 29 July. I am pleased that services have now resumed.

I am fully supportive of this facilitated engagement process as the best way to resolve these issues and to minimise the impact on service users. No dispute is ever solved in isolation.

I strongly encourage all parties involved to engage fully with this process.