Minister for Public Expenditure Michael McGrath has said the extension of the pandemic bonus to other workers is "simply not possible" as it would cost more than €500 million.
The €1,000 bonus was announced on Wednesday along with a new public holiday to recognise the efforts of the country during the Covid-19 pandemic and to remember those who lost their lives.
As reported in the Irish Examiner, Mr McGrath told the Dáil that the Government decided to prioritise frontline healthcare workers for the bonus payment because extending it to others would be too costly for the State.
"The truth is that if the Government were to seek to meet all the legitimate calls that have been made to extend this pandemic payment, the cost of it would become very large. One could potentially be talking about €500 million or more," Mr McGrath said.
"Unfortunately, that is simply not possible. We would all love to extend this payment to a wide range of workers and volunteers, without whom our experience of Covid would have been much worse".
According to Mr McGrath, public service health and ambulance workers who were working on-site in Covid-19 exposed environments are among those set to receive the pandemic bonus.
Defence Forces staff who were assigned to testing centres, students who were required to perform training in clinical sites, and staff working on-site in private-sector nursing homes and hospices that were affected by Covid-19, are also set to receive the bonus.
"In arriving at a conclusion on this issue, we felt the need to prioritise the front-line public health workers, in particular, who left their home and went to work in a high-risk environment at a time, particularly at the start of the pandemic, when the risks were unknown and thought to be significant.
"That is why we singled out that group for this recognition payment."
Exclusion of groups
As reported in The Irish Times, a spokesperson for the Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly said the €1,000 pandemic bonus will not be paid to GPs despite their role throughout the pandemic.
This comes as the Government is facing calls from home carers, pharmacy workers, frontline staff in private hospitals and other groups to be included in the scheme.
Sinn Féin TD Mairead Farrell called on Mr McGrath to extend bonus to carers as they will not benefit from an extra bank holiday.
This morning I raised the fact that Family Carers were excluded in the pandemic recognition payment or frontline bonus 👇@sinnfeinireland pic.twitter.com/RGve3qAIr1
— Mairéad Farrell TD (@Farrell_Mairead) January 20, 2022
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Responding, Mr McGrath said that the carer's support grant had been increased to €1,850 last year.
He added that Minister Heather Humphreys is examining the issue of pension rights and pension access for carers.
When asked on Thursday about the pandemic bonus and who would receive it, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said that a panel would be created to determine the categories who will receive the bonus.
“We're going to look at certain categories - those who were on the frontline - engaging with patients, clearly there was a higher risk in the health arena, so they have to be a priority.”
The Taoiseach said there had to be “some demarcation lines to give true recognition to those on the front line”, those who had suffered trauma.
