Nurses are standing firm in their stand-off with the Government over a pandemic bonus.
The INMO (Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation) has spoken out to defend their demands for extra pay or leave, up to 10 days, indicating that a single day’s bank holiday will not be accepted.
The INMO said if the Government is looking at another bank holiday then "that is an issue that is separate to the issue we are raising".
The frontline health staff have been backed by TDs in the Dail, with Solidarity/People Before Profit TD Mick Barry saying a single day, represented by a bank holiday, would be mere “crumbs”.
But tonight it looks like there may be some movement towards acknowledging the nurses’ great work with extra pay at last.
Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe let slip a new phrase the Government seems to have coined to describe a new payment, the “Pandemic Recognition Payment,” when speaking to reporters outside Government Buildings.
Speaking on RTE's Claire Byrne earlier on Wednesday, INMO General Secretary Phil Ni Sheaghdha made the case for her union members.
She said: "We have made a very strong argument that the additional hours they put in unpaid that the risk, the very high risk, that they faced and continue to face should have specific compensation.
“We made that claim last November.
"This is back to the political system and really it is a matter of saying, do you really value the work that was done by those who went into the eye of the storm?
“If you do, then get into talks and let's agree how that is translated.”
Ms Ni Sheaghdha said other sectors looking to get in on the pandemic bonus must make their own claims.
She argues that nurses are a special case because their workspace was high risk and they had no option to work from home, like other professions had.
She said: "We all agree that everybody in Ireland did their best during Covid, but the people I am representing had no choice but to go to work.
“They had very high-risk situations."
Mr Barry said in the Dail: “If they (the Government) think that a measly bank holiday and a few crumbs off the table is going to satisfy the demand of working people for a Covid bonus, then they would want to be thinking again.”
