‘Honour the promise’: Nursing home staff demand their pandemic payments

Taoiseach Micheál Martin is “disappointed” that some of those entitled to the €1,000 Covid-19 pandemic recognition payment for their work during the crisis have still not received their money.

He said “there is an urgency to get this done”, but he pointed out that 123,750 staff in the HSE had received the payment.

The Taoiseach was responding to People Before Profit TD Gino Kenny, who said the situation was “shambolic” and an “absolute embarrassment”, given that TDs would get €1,000 from the budget but frontline workers protecting everyone had not received the payment.

He raised the issue in the Dáil after staff from nursing homes around the country gathered at the Department of Health in Dublin on Tuesday to protest over the lack of communication regarding the payment.

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It was announced in January that frontline health and ambulance workers would receive a one-time, tax-free €1,000 payment and that staff in private sector nursing homes and hospices would be eligible too.

Tadhg Daly, chief executive of Nursing Homes Ireland, told the protest that “we’re here to give an opportunity for staff to express themselves, who feel like they’re being ignored”.

“We’re urging the Government to expedite the payment,” he said.

He said “including all healthcare workers was the right choice” by Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly, “but it’s nine months on and nursing home staff haven’t seen their payment yet”.

More than 2,000 staff across the country penned letters to the department expressing their struggles during the pandemic and their frustration with the delays.

One letter, from a nurse in Co Clare, read: “I have never been under more stress than from the time of Covid. I was terrified I would pick up the virus and bring it into the home. I didn’t go visit family or friends in case I would pick it up, I got so stressed about it I ended up getting panic attacks.”

Representatives of cleaning and catering staff also took part in the protest. Jim O’Brien, a chef at Darraglynn Nursing Home in Cork, travelled to Dublin by bus to help deliver the letters and demands.

“Coronavirus doesn’t discriminate whether you worked private or public sector,” he said. “Everybody in the public sector has received their payment...we’re sick of waiting for what was promised”.

Julie McNeela, a household manager from Áras Mhuire nursing home in Drogheda, said: “Everyone knows what we went through during Covid...You were telling us back then that we were heroes not wearing capes; we’re just asking Stephen Donnelly ‘where are you now?’”

Among the assembled nurses, carers, cleaners and chefs was Sister Mary Ward, an 84-year-old resident of Maryfield Nursing Home in Chapelizod, Dublin.

“I’m here to support the nurses and carers in our nursing home who are second-to-none,” she said. “They’ve been with us right through Covid, and I hope people understand that they were taking their own health into their hands by looking after the rest of us. I could never fault them, and it’s not just during Covid — it’s day in, day out.”

Nursing manager Hayley Gibbons attended to support her staff at Maryfield Nursing Home, many of whom are working through another Covid-19 outbreak.

“We spent Christmases, birthdays, everything away from our families to live up to these residents, and it would be nice to get some recognition,” she said. “We’re a charity nursing home...It’d make a lot of difference to our staff, especially at this time of year.”

Mr Donnelly’s office was contacted for a comment on the concerns raised.