Debate contribution: Health and Social Care: Pay Awards
Debate contribution by Mr Robbie Butler on .
- MLA
- Mr Robbie Butler
- Party at the time
- Ulster Unionist Party
- Date
- 12 October 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Oral Answers to Questions
- Heading
- Health and Social Care: Pay Awards
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5786329
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I thank the Member for her question. Whilst everybody in the health service regardless of their clinical practice, whether they are a band 5, a band 6, a band 7, a band 8, a consultant, a doctor or a dentist, deserves to be fairly remunerated, for me, one of the most important issues to address is the real living wage for care workers who work in the community or other settings. Whether they are a band 2 or a band 3, they really need our help at the moment, because they are facing not only an unfair pay packet but, for those who drive and travel, the pressure of rising fuel costs, and there is not enough agility in the system to reflect that. I say this to the Member: if I do not get a budget agreed, I do not recognise the ability within my current budget to meet the need that the Member alluded to. If we do not get a budget agreed — we are not talking about additional moneys coming over — I already know that I am going to overspend this year, so no matter what I do, and no matter what I commit to, even with the Secretary of State's final offer, as he called it, there is not enough money in my budget to make those decisions. They therefore need to be made collectively and at the same time. The other pressure that I read into the record a minute or two ago is the mechanism involved. It is not complex, but it takes time. If there was an agreement at the Executive, it would probably still be in the region of 10 to 12 weeks before that money hit pay packets. If you look at the calendar, you will see that the probability of getting it in before Christmas is less than slim, even if we acted now.
316 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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