The Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly, has said the Covid-19 pandemic payment of €1,000 is a small recognition and he wants it in staff pay cheques or bank accounts immediately.
Minister Donnelly told the annual conference of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) in Co Sligo that they had worked long hours, more stressful situations, often head to toe in PPE.
He said the Covid-19 pandemic was not over, but has moved into a different phase. The minister told delegates that much of the success of the vaccination programme was down to nurses, and he said that excess mortality here due to Covid-19 was one tenth of what it was in the UK.
INMO president Karen McGowan told delegates that what should have been a good news story in the announcement of the Pandemic Recognition Payment has turned into a protracted process and taken the good news out of the measure.