Fórsa has welcomed the announcement of an additional and recurring public holiday to recognise workers’ contribution and sacrifice during the pandemic.

A once-off public holiday has been announced for 18^th March 2022 to recognise workers’ efforts in the fight against Covid, and in remembrance of people who lost their lives due to the pandemic. And from next year there will be a new permanent public holiday established in celebration of Saint Brigid’s day.

Meanwhile, the union’s head of health Éamonn Donnelly said he was seeking confirmation that health staff who were assigned to HSE swabbing centres during the pandemic will be among those eligible for a once-off tax-free €1,000 payment, which was also announced this week. Speaking on RTE’s 6.01 News on Wednesday (19^th January) Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said that they would be.

The Government statement on the Covid recognition measures said the payment would go to health staff who worked “onsite in a clinical Covid-19 exposed environment during the pandemic,” including “eligible frontline health and ambulance workers,” staff in private sector nursing homes and hospices affected by Covid-19, and those seconded or assigned to HSE testing centres.

The union has also sought confirmation that the payments will go to all workers who worked in locations deemed to be high-risk, not just clinical staff.

Fórsa and other health unions had been calling for tangible recognition for healthcare workers who put their health and lives on the line during the pandemic – particularly the early months when no vaccine or adequate PPE was available.

Éamonn said: “Research shows that staff who worked directly with Covid-19 patients were 47 times more likely to catch the virus than those impacted through community-acquired infection. Many, many people rolled up their sleeves and did different things at one day's notice, and I think the country acknowledges that," he said.

Fórsa general secretary Kevin Callinan said unions had argued strongly that an economy-wide acknowledgement of health and other workers’ efforts during the crisis should go beyond a one-off gesture.

“It’s very welcome news that, following a once-off additional public holiday on 18^th March 2022, we will see an additional public holiday introduced on a permanent basis. This recognises workers’ contribution and sacrifice over the last two years, and brings Ireland closer to European norms in terms of the number of public holidays in place for workers,” he said.

In addition to the recognition measures announced this week, the recent recommendation that additional working time introduced under the Haddington Road agreement (HRA) be restored this July was also linked to civil and public servants’ efforts during the pandemic.

The independent body that reported on the hours last week cited this as one of the reasons for recommending the full implementation of its recommendations, despite the fact that this would go beyond the €150 earmarked for implementation in 2022.

In its recommendation, the body said “the committed efforts of staff during the last two years in meeting patient, healthcare, population vaccine, security needs and the requirements of delivery for existing and new social welfare and pandemic payment measures has to be acknowledged.

“The Independent Body has to take into consideration the contemporaneous working environment and the human pressures on those striving to address these challenges on a daily basis and in extremely trying circumstances.”

Read the Department of the Taoiseach statement HERE. 

Read Fórsa’s statement HERE.