Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Last week, the Taoiseach told the Dáil the Government is committed to recognising the sacrifices that public sector workers, in particular front-line healthcare workers, have made. Twelve months ago, I raised with the Taoiseach the need to properly recognise the Trojan work of front-line healthcare workers, in particular all those across our hospital and community health services, from cleaners to consultants. I raised it again with him four months ago.

I have no doubt the Government is committed to providing recognition to staff but it seems, from reading between the lines, that the need to recognise front-line healthcare workers - doctors, nurses, healthcare assistants, cleaners, porters and others who place themselves at risk by going to work every day to keep us safe and to care for those who are seriously ill - is now caught up in some relativity battle across the public service. I remind the Tánaiste of what the Taoiseach said last week, namely, that the Government is committed to recognising the sacrifices that public sector workers have made. That, I believe, is the reason the HSE, when it sat down with the health unions last week, stated it had no mandate from the Government to negotiate any bonus payment.

Staff on the front line within our health service have been put in a unique position during this pandemic. Right across the public service, staff have worked in challenging circumstances, but no group of public sector workers have put their lives and those of their families at risk to a greater extent than our healthcare workers. Many of them have put their hands into their own pockets to do so, paying for alternative accommodation in order that they would not infect a vulnerable person in their home or for additional childcare, if it was available, in order that they could cover for sick colleagues. I could go on.

Many of these staff are physically and mentally exhausted, facing into the fourth wave of this virus, dealing with the significant impact of the cyberattack, covering staffing shortages due to Covid infection and long Covid and now facing a backlog in waiting times for appointments and procedures. These staff need time off to recover before they break down completely. As the Tánaiste will be well aware, exhausted healthcare staff are a recipe for mistakes, with potentially fatal consequences for patients and very significant financial consequences for the State. We must now - today - recognise that time off is imperative for their health and give proper recognition to staff on the front line, as the Scottish Government has done by paying every NHS worker a bonus of £500.

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