Emer Currie (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise the bonus payment for healthcare workers. We are still waiting for the final details or an FAQ on it. I know it is very difficult and that there has been a lot of debate on it to decide how it will work when people have sacrificed so much. This was a national and collective effort. I am sure that the things being thought about include the length of time people worked. I think especially of the people at the beginning of the pandemic who really stepped into the unknown, with the lack of PPE, the suboptimal conditions and no vaccination on the horizon. Then we have to consider people who volunteered versus people who were employed. We need to give consideration to the volunteers who also worked in a healthcare or clinical environment, most especially the community swabbers, who were a critical part of our response, working in places such as temporary structures and army tents, rain, hail or shine. They did not do it for the thanks, but sometimes you give gratitude anyway. I am thinking of somebody I know personally who did community swabbing. She was officially hired as an employee only in May 2021 but had worked as a volunteer since the very start and stepped into the brink, as I said. I am incredibly grateful to her for doing that. We need to consider that group of people. Even though the recruitment of community swabbers started only in October 2020, they were in those positions long before then. The sooner we have information on this, the better.