I welcome to the Gallery healthcare assistants from Northside Home Care. They are workers who do incredibly important work. They work antisocial hours, on evenings and weekends. Many of them worked on Christmas Day and despite their Trojan work for our elderly, they receive only the minimum wage or just above it. Their pay levels are effectively below what they were paid in 2009. They received pay cuts then and have never received pay restoration. They have been excluded from a pay increase for the social, community and voluntary sector. They are being paid far less than healthcare assistants who are employed directly by the HSE, yet they do the same work. This has forced this group of workers to go on strike. These workers look after our loved ones in our communities, helping people to stay in their homes and out of hospital. This is some of the most important work anyone could do and it is being massively undervalued. The way the workers are being treated is a disgrace. Will the Minister for Health meet the group of workers, and will the Government act to ensure they are paid a fair wage, which they deserve?

Sentiment score: 0.10