Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I want to say on behalf of the Government that we are anxious that this payment be made as quickly as possible. There was a meeting on Monday this week involving the health sector trade union group as well as the HSE and the Department of Health. A number of issues were discussed there, some of which the Deputy touched on. There will be a further meeting today. We are very anxious to bring this to finality. It was always going to be difficult when one gets into the nitty-gritty detail of the matter. The principle is very good. It is about giving recognition to people who were on the front line and went above and beyond the call of duty. Those knotty issues of detail need to be resolved and I know the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, is keen to proceed as quickly as possible. Hopefully, there will be further progress at today's meeting.

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