Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

To recognise their role during the pandemic, the Government announced that a recognition payment of €1,000 tax-free would be made to all eligible staff. I am very happy to inform the House that over 188,000 staff have been paid. This measure compares favourably internationally. For example, in Northern Ireland it is £500 versus €1,000 in the Republic.

In the public health service, roll-out is substantially complete, with over 88,500 HSE staff and over 52,500 section 38 staff having been paid. For eligible defence and Dublin Fire Brigade staff, funding was transferred to their employing bodies and I am advised that payment to these groups is substantially complete.

While commencing the roll-out beyond the public sector took some time, it was important to get it right. The HSE had a very legitimate concern that if double payments were made or if payments were made in circumstances where they should not have been made, we in the Oireachtas would have been asking it difficult questions about allocations of public money. The HSE was understandably cautious and that took additional time.

However, I directed the HSE to move to a self-assessment model rather than a much more comprehensive audit that it was planning on doing which really would have delayed these payments. While it would have been very thorough in allocating funding, it would have potentially delayed these payments for a very long time. Therefore, I directed it to move to a self-assessment process. We need to be honest in here at the Dáil that the self-assessment process may lead to some double payments but it is a trade-off between getting it 100% right and actually getting the money to the staff we are looking to get it to.

The roll-out is now progressing at pace. As of last Friday, 542 of the 694 claims received from eligible employers have now been paid. This means 78% of these organisations and over 45,000 staff have now paid. I am advised that the remaining payments will be made in the coming weeks.

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