Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Government will prioritise healthcare and healthcare workers in the context of getting through Covid. We will get through it. We do not just acknowledge but know full well the incredible role that healthcare workers have played in helping the people of this country to come through Covid and that will continue to be the case. We will have a €30 billion deficit at the end of this year because of the enormous expenditure on health. That expenditure will continue right through 2021 as well. Testing has increased significantly, including of all healthcare workers. For example, the HSE has been operating a programme to test all healthcare workers in nursing homes. That will continue on a systemic basis to make sure that we can avoid what happened with the spread of the virus in the nursing home sector and, similarly, in the acute hospital sector.

The stimulus is not about big business and banks. The stimulus is about workers. I am sure the Deputy wants workers' jobs to be preserved and their livelihoods to be improved.

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