Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said he is disappointed that many workers in the health and care sectors have yet to receive their €1,000 Covid frontline payment.
is comments came as nursing home staff gathered at the Department of Health in Dublin today to demand the Government fulfil its promise and pay the 40,000 staff still waiting for their bonus.
Mr Martin was tackled on the issue in the Dáil by Gino Kenny TD of PBP-Solidarity, who said TDs were about to get their own €1,000 pay bonus as a result of the recently-agreed public sector pay deal while people who were at the coal face of Covid were being ignored.
Most payments of the €1,000 pandemic bonus were made in January this year, mainly to HSE personnel and those directly employed by the State. But those privately employed in commercial nursing homes, or on contract with agencies, are still waiting.
“I’m disappointed that those entitled to it have not received it,” the Taoiseach told Mr Kenny.
“We discussed this at Government level, and particularly in terms of private nursing homes and in terms of hospices and Section 39 agencies.
“We want to work on a much faster methodology,” Mr Martin said, adding that the HSE “had been dealing with this from an accountability point of view,” wanting to make sure that all payments were accurately targeted, above scrutiny, and could be accounted for.
“But that said, in respect of a number of sectors that have been approved for this payment, in the Government’s view there is disappointment that it hasn’t happened.
“There’s an urgency to get it done.”
Bríd Smith TD, also of People Before Profit-Solidarity, called out: “Where is their €1,000? They put their lives on the line for us.”
Among those who protested outside the Department of Health today was Ioana Deac, a clinical nurse manager at Marymount Care Centre in Co Dublin.
“I couldn’t hug my child. My daughter, she was six. I couldn’t hug her because it was not safe. Now can you imagine trying to explain to a child why their mom cannot hug them?” she said.
“We just want to be treated equally like the HSE staff – the same. I’m a staff nurse, the same as any other staff nurse.”
Joyce Timmins, a catering manager at Marymount, said: “We worked hard, we worked long hours, tirelessly for our residents to keep them as safe as possible. And we did that with a smile on their face.
“Why are we different? We shouldn’t be different. We should have got it at the same time as the HSE,” she said.
Sister Mary Ward (84), a resident of Maryfield Nursing Home in Co Dublin, joined with the nursing home staff at their protest.
“I’m here to support the plea of the nurses and the carers who gave their time and their health all during Covid. They were extraordinary, in spite of the fact that they were in danger themselves of picking it up from us.
“I’ve heard Micheál Martin so often using the word ‘justice’. And this is a matter of justice for the carers of all those private nursing homes,” she said.
Over 2,000 letters written by nursing home staff were delivered to the department, outlining their frustration at the delay in receiving the pandemic bonus.
Tadhg Daly, chief executive of Nursing Homes Ireland, said: “Staff spoke of the extreme pressures they and colleagues were placed under, the traumatic loss of residents, the very serious emotional toll they experienced, exhaustion as they worked around the clock to protect residents.
“The letters articulate immense frustration, anger and upset being experienced by staff in private and voluntary nursing homes because of the extreme delay in rolling this payment out.
“A general feeling from the letters is staff feel disrespected by the State.”
In a statement to Independent.ie, the Department of Health said the rollout of the pandemic bonus is complex in this instance as the staff are not HSE employees and the “required data on these employees is not usually available to the HSE/department”.
“The HSE has tendered for an external contractor to assist with rolling out the payment, particularly with data collection from the large number of organisations involved, checking of data, and corresponding with the organisations…
“The department is aware that the deadline for the HSE’s tender process on this matter was extended to 23 September. In accordance with public procurement guidelines, from the time a preferred tenderer is selected by the HSE, a standstill period of 14 days must be observed before any contract can come into effect.”
