![Joan Carthy, head of advocacy at the Irish Wheelchair Association: 'We and other [section 39] organisations are haemorrhaging staff.' Photograph: Alan Betson](https://www.irishtimes.com/resizer/v2/465XCLGWTJGZFNZPYRV3AX4LKE.JPG?auth=2c678d70ff376bbaabcd38eae050266b16bad5d990a5991e34148c4640b4ea70&smart=true&width=1024&height=683)
“It’s very disheartening, people I trained with doing the exact same job, but getting more pay,” says Anna Scully (40).
Scully works as a clinical nurse manager in the Enable Ireland Adult Day Services centre in Quinn’s Cross, Limerick, where she manages a number of teams of nurses, adult support workers and social care workers.
Enable Ireland, a provider of services to children and adults with disabilities and their families in 14 counties, is also a section 39 organisation.
Section 39 organisations occupy an unusual space but operate essential services. They are, as Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe told the Dáil in July said, “part of the broader community and voluntary sector”.
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They are grant-funded by the State, which is where they get their name: they are part funded in line with section 39 of the Health Act 2004.
These organisations are not public bodies; rather, they are private and independently run entities, said Donohoe.
The wording of section 39 of the Act is important: “The [Health Service] Executive (HSE) may … on such terms and conditions as it sees fit to impose, give assistance to any … body that provides … a service similar or ancillary to a service that the Executive may provide. Assistance may be provided … by contributing to the expenses incurred by the .. body.”
The plight of section 39 workers was catapulted into the public spotlight recently when section 39 disability worker Charlotte Fallon confronted Taoiseach Simon Harris in a supermarket in Kanturk, Co Cork, while he was out canvassing. Harris abruptly ended his discussion with Fallon when she was trying to raise concerns about pay and working conditions for section 39 workers like her.
The video of their exchange made headlines and became one of the viral moments of the November general election campaign – an awkward moment for the Fine Gael leader during which, he later said, he “came up short”.
Anna Scully relates to the lack of awareness that Fallon encountered with Harris when she had people calling to her door looking for her vote during the election campaign.
“Some politicians called to my door and they were not even aware of [section 39],” she says.
This has consequences, particularly for her pay, she says.
“I studied very hard and have worked very hard but I could be working beside someone in the centre who is doing the same work but is on more money,” she says.
A common characteristic of people working in the section 39 sector is passion for their work, and Scully is no different: “For me I’m so passionate working with Enable Ireland. I’m with them six years. It’s a very unique type of work. From the start, people seem to love it. But it’s a career as well.”
Scully says she is able to remain in her current employment because she is in the fortunate position of being married to someone with a higher-paying job, adding, “if I wasn’t, things might be different”, given that her wages “can’t pay the mortgage fees, the creche fees”.
Although the threat of a strike by section 39 workers in October 2023 was averted at the last hour, and they received a pay increase of 8 per cent, the pay rise of 9.25 per cent over two-and-a-half years secured by the public sector in January has reinstated the pay gap.
“The gap can vary from 4.85 per cent to 10.73 per cent, depending on the role and your position on the pay scale, and it will only get worse in 2025,” says Scully.
Another section 39 worker is Eva Sheehy Perara (44), occupational head of discipline for the four Enable Ireland-led Child Disability Network Teams in Cork and Kerry. She has worked for Enable Ireland for almost 14 years.
Sheehy Perara’s role involves clinical oversight and governance of therapy provided by clinicians, clinical supervision of occupational therapists, mentorship, teaching and, if a child’s needs are complex, being available to jump in with the clinicians.
For her also, being passionate about her work is a given: “You want to help people … it’s a very rewarding job.”
However, she too is concerned at the pay disparity with her colleagues in the public sector: “It’s very upsetting, it’s very demoralising working alongside other workers, doing the exact same job but being not recognised like them.”
As a consequence of the difference in pay, Sheehy Perara has also seen a reticence on the part of clinicians to volunteer for extra duties: “‘Will this add to my role, if I’m being paid less? Why am I not being valued the same?’”
Enable Ireland had a turnover of over €75 million in 2023 and remains reliant on funding from the HSE for its day-to-day services, according to its chief executive, John O’Sullivan.
“We received a grant of over €65 million from the HSE in 2023,” he says.
However, the body is €4 million short annually in funding, which is made up from a number of sources. “We make up half of it from fundraising, we appeal to the public for €1 million and we also have corporate supporters. The other half we generate from our retail business, the commercial aspect and the charity shops,” says O’Sullivan.
Unsurprisingly, fundraising is always challenging, he says: “It’s a very competitive environment. We have charitable status; that means we have capacity to fundraise – we run initiatives and events around the country, so it’s a never-ending piece of work.”
O’Sullivan admits that not being able to raise the requisite amount of funding outside of the HSE grant is a “general concern”, adding that “if the funds are not there the services can’t run at the level we want them for our service users”.
[ Talks on S39 pay issue highlighted by canvassing encounter end without progressOpens in new window ]
Regarding how the HSE decides on the amount of funding each Section 39 organisation gets, its press office states: “Local arrangements or Service Level Agreements (SLAs) apply for funding of section 39 organisations from the HSE health regions.”
Pension rights is another issue of concern, according to Sharon Harty, acting chief executive of Clondalkin Addiction Support Programme: “We don’t have a pension scheme. We have staff in their 70s, which has implications for our organisation.”
As a result of the poorer pay and conditions that section 39 workers receive, staff recruitment and retention is a further issue, according to Joan Carthy, head of advocacy with the Irish Wheelchair Association: “We and other organisations are haemorrhaging staff. Sometimes people take up employment, do the training but then take up a better offer.”
A more sustainable model of funding is required, says Fiona McCaffrey Jones, manager of Truagh Development Association in Mullanacross, Emyvale, Co Monaghan.
“With section 39 funding you have to reapply every year. But say you got a five-year contract, or even for a three-year period, you could put a plan in place which would allow you to budget properly and not to have to be desperately fundraising,” she says.
While talks have been ongoing between the unions and the Government for more than a year, Siptu announced at the beginning of the month that it is to begin consultations with members in section 39 organisations concerning industrial action over the pay disparity issue.
“I think we’re ready to fight it now because in real life you just can’t continue on unequal pay,” says Scully.
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