Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. As of last Friday, approximately 90,000 eligible HSE and section 38 staff have received the Covid-19 pandemic recognition payment. We estimate that is approximately nine in every ten people who are eligible for the payment, as public sector healthcare or section 38 staff. This payment recognises the extraordinary contribution and efforts made during the pandemic by our healthcare workers.

Roll-out of the payment continues to be prioritised across all services, and should be completed within the coming weeks.

Officials are working to ensure payments to eligible non-HSE, non-section 38 employees are rolled out. This will take time for several reasons, as I am sure the Deputy appreciates. One such reason is these employees are not normally paid by the public health service. Another is that we must avoid duplicate payments. For example, we may have somebody who is working as a healthcare professional in one of our hospitals and who has been paid but who also works for another organisation. We want to avoid that duplication. As I am sure the Deputy will appreciate, there are very many organisations to be covered in this wider group. I very am keen that all efforts are made to pay these eligible staff as quickly as possible. To clarify, the comment about the "coming weeks" is with regard to the HSE and the section 38 staff. There are other staff there who it will take a bit more time to pay but I have no doubt if we were making payments in ways that were not verified, the Deputy would quite rightly be raising the question of the proper allocation of public resources.

I am happy to come back on the second issue the Deputy raised in the next round.

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