Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

Last September, the Taoiseach first promised a bonus for front-line health workers who helped in the fight against Covid-19. Seven months on, not a single cent has been paid out and now many workers are finding out that they either will not qualify for the full bonus or they will not get anything at all due to the Scrooge-like terms and conditions being applied. One such group is the Covid-19 community swabbers, who helped to run our testing facilities throughout the country before vaccines were even available and without personal protective equipment, PPE, back in the early days of the pandemic. They put themselves at risk to help to control the virus, but now many of them are being told they do not count as front-line workers. I will quote a short excerpt from an email from a woman who worked as a community swabber. She made the point that "We are the people who worked on the front line, day in and day out, throughout the entire pandemic, at times with sub-par PPE, and for many of us in suboptimal conditions, working in temporary structures, such as army tents in freezing cold snow and blistering heat". Will the Taoiseach intervene to ensure these people get what they deserve at the very least?

See this speech in context