Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I expect sanctions to be imposed on Saudi Arabia and the apartheid State of Israel promptly following that announcement. I will not hold my breath on that, obviously.

I again ask about the €1,000 that was promised to healthcare workers. The applause given to those healthcare workers for the work they did during the Covid pandemic - and are still doing - rings hollow now when the Government still has not paid these healthcare workers the €1,000 promised. Community swabbers have contacted us and I asked questions about that. It seems that community swabbers may not be getting this payment. There have been suggestions that phlebotomy nurses will probably not get the €1,000. The Government seems to be penny-pinching and that is why these negotiations are dragging on.

The Government is looking for reasons to exclude healthcare workers, every one of whom deserves as an absolute minimum the €1,000 payment that was promised. Why has the Government not paid it and why is it trying to exclude healthcare workers from benefiting from this payment?

See this speech in context