Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I would like to raise with the Taoiseach a very important issue in regard to the Government's plan to make a once-off tax free €1,000 bonus payment to front-line healthcare workers and the concerns that not all of our front-line workers will be included in this bonus payment. Take, for example, a letter I received from Ability West in Galway which provides services right across the region. It stated that it is with great shock that it is beginning to realise that section 39 disability service providers will potentially be excluded from the once-off bonus payment. This is divisive and it is also creating a tier within our health service provision, which is very worrying and very dangerous. Where people are providing care in residential services, respite services, day services and multidisciplinary services, it is important they get the same recognition as section 38 or HSE directly employed front-line workers.

Many workers involved in these hospitals who were gowned up and dealing with people who had Covid, bringing them their food and taking care of them, and they were contracted in by subcontractors. Will they be included?

A huge shadow has been cast over the scheme. It is right that the scheme should be brought in but it has to be thought out fully to make sure that the people who deserve it will get it, and that we do not make sections within our health service among those who provided the same type of service right across the board. We think about people in nursing homes who were gowned up every day and who provided all the protocols that were needed. How come they may not be included in this plan?

People will ask how far do we go with this but, at the end of the day, we have a situation where the Government is bringing forward a plan and the plan does not seem to be fair to everybody. When we entered into Covid, the restrictions and everything that was applied to them, the one thing we said was that we are all in this together. If there is going to be a bonus for healthcare workers, it needs to be there for all healthcare workers who provided so much service to the State. I also believe family carers should be considered for the scheme. The Taoiseach might ask how far do we go with it. We need to know, before the scheme is introduced, that all of those who made a contribution, who were gowned up, who were in the situation where they were putting their own health at risk for the sake of others and to save others, are all included in the scheme.

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