Pippa Hackett (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for raising this issue today. On 19 January, the Government announced a Covid-19 recognition payment for front-line public sector healthcare workers, to recognise the unique role they played during the pandemic. The payment will not be subject to income tax, USC or PRSI. The measure will be ring-fenced to staff who worked ordinarily on-site in Covid-19 exposed healthcare environments for at least four weeks within the period between 1 March 2020 and 30 June 2021. Among those staff, the payment amount is €1,000 for those whose work pattern is at least 60% whole-time equivalent, or €600 for those below that threshold. This payment is being made to those eligible public sector front-line healthcare staff, inclusive of agency staff working for the HSE, who worked in clinical settings. While not an exhaustive list, and subject to eligibility criteria, public sector employees will include doctors, nurses, healthcare assistants, porters, cleaners and other eligible staff who work in clinical settings.

The Department and the HSE have consulted extensively with health sector trade unions on this matter. The eligibility guidelines for this payment that apply in HSE and section 38 organisations were published online by the HSE on 19 April. Since then, local HSE sites and section 38 organisations have been assessing employees’ eligibility and arranging payments. All services are in the process of actioning the payment to those staff who have been deemed eligible to receive it. I have been assured that this is receiving priority attention across services. Figures for payments to HSE staff are reported centrally every week. Section 38 staff are excluded from these figures. The latest available figures show that by 27 May last, 12,831 payments had been processed, to a value of over €12 million. Separately, I can confirm that payments have been made to staff in Beaumont Hospital and the Rotunda.

The measure also extends to equivalent healthcare workers in certain other specific types of healthcare organisation. Arrangements for the sectors encompassed by this measure are currently being progressed by officials in the Department of Health. When it is available, officials will provide information for those other certain healthcare employees that are covered by the Government decision and the process available to their employers to implement this measure for their eligible staff. This will cover eligible staff in private sector nursing homes and hospices; eligible staff working on-site in section 39 long-term residential care facilities for people with disabilities; agency roles working in the HSE; healthcare support assistants, also known as home help, home care or home support contracted to the HSE; members of the Department of Defence redeployed to work in HSE Covid-19 exposed environments; and paramedics employed by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.