Delay in Covid payment to fire brigade ‘unacceptable’, says firefighter

Firefighter David Gardiner is calling on Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly TD to deliver on the promise of a €1,000 payment to all firefighters and paramedics for their work during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Members of the fire brigade are among frontline healthcare staff who were told that they would receive the one-off bonus.

However, firefighters and paramedics are one of the last groups of workers to have not yet received the payment.

Gardiner, who is a Worker’s Party representative for Lucan and Palmerstown said the delay has been unacceptable.

“Back in January, healthcare workers were promised a payment of €1,000 to recognise our role in combating the Covid-19 pandemic,” he said.

“We are coming towards the end of the year now, and Dublin Fire Brigade paramedics are still yet to receive this payment.

“We had the job of transporting people from homes and nursing homes into the hospital.

“Especially in the early days of the pandemic when the virus wasn’t entirely understood, this could be a stressful and worrying task.

“This was made worse by the level of understaffing in Dublin Fire Brigade.”

Gardiner said fire brigade members took the personal risk of catching the virus and “passing it on to your loved ones at home.

“With that said, we knew what our job was and we carried it out in service to the people of Dublin.

“What is not acceptable to us, however, is the level of disrespect that we have been shown by Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly.

“Like many others, we worked a tough job during the pandemic, and yet we have only been met with empty words in relation to the delivery of this recognition payment.

“It is worth noting that this has all occurred during a cost-of-living crisis.

“If we were to account for inflation between when the payment was announced and now, we would actually be looking at a figure of €1,067.54.”

“Stephen Donnelly not only owes us €1,000, but he also owes us an explanation as to what has taken him so long to deliver on his promise.”

Speaking in the Dail in October, Minister Donnelly said: “I am happy that more than 124,000 workers have been paid.

“We are fast-tracking those who remain to be paid, including workers in the Defence Forces, the fire brigade, prison nurses and others, the majority of whom are nursing home staff.

“I have engaged with the HSE and, in fairness to the executive, good progress is being made on that.”