Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change) | Oireachtas source

I watched "Prime Time Investigates" last night and it was harrowing and sad. I wish to express my solidarity with the families of the patients who died and the staff who were with them, who became their carers, who took care of their medical needs, who became their communicators and who literally became their undertakers. That is the role they played over that period and that must be recognised, not with a clap and with people standing in the street. They have to be looked after now. Those workers were distraught. They need care now, and they need follow-up care. They need better terms and conditions in terms of their pay. They need those beds to be kept open. They need the extra staff who came home to stay in our health service and they need us to start moving to a Sláintecare situation and an NHS for Ireland. They were amazing staff. That was not just happening in St. James's Hospital but it was happening all over the country.

I agree with Deputy Connolly about the nursing homes. They were not prioritised and, to a certain degree, I understand that because the HSE and NPHET were scared of its lives about what could have happened in the public hospitals because of the crisis in healthcare. That is where things went wrong, because they were focused mainly on the public hospitals and the public in general and they dropped the ball from the point of view of our nursing homes and our older people.

We saw what happened as a consequence.

We are discussing Vote 38, which is the additional funding of almost €2 billion required to ensure the health service could respond to the Covid crisis. It is a retrospective go-ahead. The committee has not had an opportunity to scrutinise the Estimate, which is understandable but regrettable. The format it has been issued in makes it very difficult to read. We are really voting on the macro moneys and the broad figures of €115 million per month for taking over the private hospitals, paying the rent, testing and tracking and personal protective equipment critical to respond to Covid-19. I want to try to bring in a micro aspect of our health service whereby workers have been very much let down and I would like the Minister to look into it if he can. I will ask a few questions at the end.

At the start of the crisis we were asked to stand and clap for the heroes who are the front-line workers in our health service but the reality of the treatment of these workers in many cases is nothing short of disgraceful. Recently, I was contacted by a worker in the health service with 20 years service in an administrative role. At the start of the crisis, this woman and her colleagues were told by management that they were considered front-line workers and that they could not work from home. She has two children, both with underlying health issues, and could not use her parents for childcare for obvious reasons as they were aged over 70. In effect, she was forced to use her annual leave to take time off to mind her children. Her annual leave year begins on 1 April and people have 26 to 28 days, depending on their service. All of this person's annual leave was used by the end of May because she had no one else to look after her children. All of her annual leave until 1 April 2021 is gone. Her option now is unpaid parental leave. I am sure it is not just this person in this situation.

The crèche facilities available to this person pre-Covid were 7.30 a.m. to 6.15 p.m. These were the same as her working hours and she could work around them. Now what is available is 8.45 a.m. to 5 p.m. because the childcare facility cannot do more than this. She has an hour commute to work in the morning and the same in the evening. This means she could only be at work at 10 a.m. and would have to leave at 3.30 p.m. to collect her children. This is not an option for her. The cost of the crèche now available for 22 hours a week for two children is €294, leaving her with approximately €100 a week for everything else, including diesel, travel, lunch, household outgoings and mortgage. Her partner is also a front-line worker. He has to go in as he is a subcontractor and would lose the contract if he was not available.

My understanding is that it is against the law to force workers to use annual leave in this situation but effectively this is what has happened. The problem is widespread for front-line health workers and it was raised recently by the INMO. The Government promised to make special arrangements to provide crèche facilities for health workers but completely failed to deliver. I find the situation absolutely incredible. Surely there is somebody in charge, either at ministerial level or among the officials in the Department or managers in the HSE who could have used their imagination and wit to provide a solution. These workers should have been allowed to stay at home with full pay. That is the bottom line. They had no other choice. They had to stay at home and they should have been told to stay at home on full pay.

This worker is now looking at the possibility of seeking alternative employment with suitable hours, which is going to be very difficult for her but she does not really have much choice. This is the choice she has been given. She was really let down, as were many of her fellow health workers. She has said staff are in despair and stressed and some are depressed. These workers should be given back the annual leave they had to take. They should be given the flexible hours to be able to look after their children. This worker should be able to work around the childcare hours that she has.

Will the Minister investigate this? Will he give a commitment to front-line workers that he will find out how many of them were affected? I am speaking about ambulance workers, nurses, administration staff and workers across the board. Will the Minister find out how many of these workers were affected and write to them to tell them they will get their annual leave back, they do not have to take unpaid parental leave and they will be paid in the meantime and given flexible hours? I hope the Minister will respond to this.

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