Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, for his opening statement. Before I open up the debate to members, I would like to say that we have had a number of witnesses at different meetings over the last couple of months, coming in and expressing frustration regarding the goodwill pandemic payment. We got a note from the Minister back in March regarding those who had been paid, but there is a significant number of people who have not been paid. Rather than having individual members coming in on the issue, could we start off by finding out who has been paid, and who has not been paid?

What are the problems in regard to the payments? We have had Fórsa and some other trade unions in and they all expressed frustration at the fact that their members had not been paid. It is a significant amount of money. It is a recognition of the extra work and commitment that they made during the pandemic and it is unforgivable at this stage, when we are talking about winding down pandemic services, that people have not been paid. Is there anything the Minister can say to those people this morning that will reassure them that they will get paid sooner rather than later? Has it been going on for a long time?