Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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1381. To ask the Minister for Health if he will set out a clear timeframe for the payment of the pandemic bonus to all eligible front-line healthcare workers, both in the public and private sectors, who faced additional risks in the performance of their duties during the pandemic; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1020/23]

Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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1421. To ask the Minister for Health the timeline for the issuing of the final pandemic bonus payments; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1185/23]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 1381 and 1421 together.

The Government announced a COVID-19 pandemic recognition payment for certain frontline public sector healthcare workers, to recognise their unique role during the pandemic. To date, payments have been made in respect of over 138,000 eligible HSE and Section 38 staff, with appeals from other HSE and Section 38 staff are due to be adjudicated by an independently Chaired appeals board within weeks. 

Certain non-HSE/Section 38 healthcare employees are covered by the Government Decision, and efforts are underway to complete an efficient and expeditious rollout to these staff. These include eligible staff in: 

1. Private Sector Nursing Homes and Hospices (e.g. Private, Voluntary, Section 39 etc.); 

2. Eligible staff working on-site in Section 39 long-term residential care facilities for people with disabilities; 

3. Agency roles working in the HSE; 

4. Health Care Support Assistants (also known as home help / home care / home support) contracted to the HSE; 

5. Members of the Defence Forces redeployed to work in frontline Covid-19 exposed environments in the HSE;  

6. Paramedics employed by Dublin Fire Brigade to deliver services on behalf of the HSE.  

Regarding cohorts 1-4 above, the HSE and an external contractor, KOSI Corp, are currently progressing the rollout to these eligible staff. As of 23 December, information on the process involved has now been provided by the HSE and KOSI Corp to 862 organisations, and of these, 637 have applied for funding to make the recognition payment. I am pleased to confirm that 286 organisations have already been paid or approved for payments for 22,690 eligible staff, with more due in the coming weeks. 

While the HSE and KOSI Corp are processing applications as quickly as possible, they are also undertaking important work to validate applications as they come in, to improve accuracy and ensure taxpayer money is handled appropriately. Thus far this has identified errors in approximately 90% of organisations' applications, and has prevented €552,000 in potential overpayments.

As this information is being collected, validated, corrected, and acted on in real-time in a self-assessment manner, it is not possible to estimate exactly how many individuals have yet to be paid nor when the remaining employers will have applied for funding. 

Regarding cohorts 5 and 6 above, the Department of Health has transferred funding in early November to the Department of Defence and Dublin City Council to enable payments to these eligible staff. 

Finally I would again like to thank all healthcare workers for their extraordinary efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic.