Labour call for €1,000 “solidarity payment” to healthcare workers

It would certainly be well-deserved.

Newly-elected Labour leader Alan Kelly has called on the government to reward Ireland's healthcare workers with a €1,000 "solidarity payment." In a statement issued on Thursday, Kelly said: "I am proposing, that as a gesture, the State gift our healthcare workers a €1,000 pandemic payment to honour the work that healthcare workers have done to slow the spread of this virus and for all they are doing and will continue to do to try keep us and our loved ones safe." Kelly called on the payment to be made by the first week of May, to coincide with the May bank holiday. The Tipperary TD also noted that countries like France have made similar gestures, offering a bonus of €1,500 to workers in its healthcare sector. "No reasonable person could deny that those who are working to keep us safe at this time don’t deserve some kind of immediate gesture from the State," Kelly said. It was confirmed last night that two healthcare workers had died in Kilkenny after contracting the coronavirus. As things stand, almost 23% of Ireland's confirmed cases of Covid-19 are healthcare workers.