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

I appreciate where the Deputy is coming from. Ability West does exceptional work. It is a broad-based organisation, covering a range of services, including day, respite, residential, outreach and multidisciplinary support services, for both children and adults with intellectual disabilities. That is acknowledged. The challenge facing Government is the difficulty in drawing clear demarcation lines for this. Fundamentally, it is about front-line healthcare workers, who were continually exposed, on multiple occasions, to multiple patients through engagements with them throughout the pandemic.

Early on, when we saw the programmes on RTÉ and elsewhere illustrating the impact of the pandemic on intensive care, there was a clear understanding of why that area in particular needed clear recognition, above and beyond others. It was because they were really in the firing line. There is a two-tiered response here. There is the recognition payment and then there is the general bank holiday, which is permanent and will apply to everybody else.

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