It started out as a popular and seemingly uncontroversial idea: to recognise the service and sacrifice of frontline healthcare workers in the darkest days of the pandemic. Now the idea of paying a bonus has escalated to a divisive row.
After health sector unions sought ten days’ extra annual leave — at an estimated cost of €500 million to the public purse — teachers, gardai and prison officers were soon clamouring to get to the negotiating table too. Various versions of the promised “pandemic bonus” to have been proposed, only to be debated and rejected, have included more holidays for all public sector workers, at a cost of €1 billion, or a €500 voucher each. A new bank holiday seems on the cards but the
