Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for being here to take this Topical Issue matter. It is a very important issue. I will outline what I feel is one of the most unfair and mean-spirited moves that has happened in my four and half years in the Dáil in terms of the State and its treatment of former healthcare workers. These people came back from retirement to answer Ireland's call during Covid. They put themselves on the front line and now they are being asked to pay back money I certainly feel they do not owe.

It might help if I outline what has happened. In April 2020, in the midst of Covid-19 taking hold in Ireland, the State through the Government put out a call, Ireland's call, to medical workers who might have been abroad and to retired HSE healthcare workers to come back and help us, that we needed help because it was going to be incredibly difficult and we needed them to get us through that period, and they did. At the time we had images of the first deaths from Covid, lockdowns, funerals loved ones could not attend, vaccination centres and healthcare workers falling ill. Despite all of this and despite everything that was going on, these retired healthcare workers, who were well into their 50s and some who were in their 60s, came back to put their lives on the line to help some of the most vulnerable people in Ireland and to help us through this. They were told at the time not to worry and that, if they came back and did their half week or half hours, it would not impact on their pension. In the normal course of events, if someone comes back from retirement and works for the HSE, the abatement kicks in. This impacts on a person's pension in that it is deducted from their pension, but these returning workers were told it would be okay and would not impact on their pension, and it did not. They worked their way through the pandemic.

When the pandemic ended, the health system remained under pressure and under stress, they were asked to stay on. We needed their help and experience, and so they stayed on when the pandemic ended in 2022. All went well until recent weeks when a lot of these workers started receiving correspondence from the HSE essentially thanking them for getting us through this and for everything they had done for us through the pandemic but that they now owed the State €5,000 or €6,000 or, in one case, up to €20,000. To me, this is completely unfair. It is a kick up the backside for people who put their lives at risk. Essentially the HSE was saying thanks for everything they had done but the abatement was kicking in and the waiver no longer applied.

I will put this into context. A waiver on the abatement applied in 2020, 2021 and 2022. After 2022, the pandemic ended, and they are now being told they owe money from the pension that was paid to them in 2023 and parts of 2024. It is ludicrous and ridiculous. The key point here is communication. If these workers had been communicated with, for example, in December 2022, that if they were to keep on working in 2023, the waiver would no longer apply, then they would have been informed that the abatement would come back in and they would have deductions from their pension. There was no such communication and no effort was made to communicate with these workers that they were going to be down money.

I am asking to get this sorted. The Government has just announced an extra budget of €8.3 billion. I do not know how many workers are impacted by this but it is not going to cost that much to thank them for everything they have done and to allow them hold on to their money. I suggest a little lead-in period whereby, after a couple of months, abatement would kick in from there on. Please do not make them pay back this money.

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