Richard Boyd Barrett urges pay rises for health care workers
Richard Boyd Barrett addressed the Taoiseach on health policy amid COVID-19, urging immediate pay increases for health care workers and pay equality for new entrants. He argued for major, permanent increases in capacity through large-scale recruitment to prepare for a possible second wave while noting fiscal constraints.
Call for pay increases
He urged the Government to follow the example of France and reward health care workers for their ‘‘heroic work’’, noting the French government announced an 8 billion euro package of pay increases for health staff.
Recruitment and capacity
He said permanent increases in capacity for COVID and non-COVID care require large-scale recruitment. Pay inequalities for new entrants and low pay for nurses, midwives and some health care workers are highlighted as major impediments to recruiting the staff needed.
Frontline experiences and emotional cost
He recalled the innovation, commitment and trauma endured by frontline workers, including communicating with families who could not be present at the time of a loved one’s passing, and referenced the RT Investigates coverage of staff experiences.
Economic constraints and planning
He acknowledged the State faces significant fiscal pressures, citing an expected deficit of about 30 billion this year and characterising current measures as a step-by-step approach. He referred to the July stimulus and said planning must cover the next three to twelve months to allocate resources across sectors while COVID-19 remains prevalent.
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Taoiseach, in relation to health I just want to suggest that you should start taking French lessons the French government in recognition of the heroic work of health care workers have just announced an 8 billion euro package of pay increases for health care workers because of their tremendous work in protecting the French people and French society in the face of COVID-19. Now, health care workers in this country have done every bit as much heroic work to protect us all, to protect our society, to protect the health system from being overrun and they have suffered as a consequence with some of the highest infection rates percentage wise of health care workers anywhere in the world and I want to know are we going to follow the example of France and reward them for that fact and they deserve it themselves Taoiseach for what they've done but I also want to suggest to you that if we are going to establish the permanent increases in capacity which we have to have to do COVID and non-COVID care to be able to deal with a second wave and do all the non-COVID health care we need permanent increases in capacity and that means major large-scale recruitment and one of the big impediments and one of the big impediments to recruiting health care workers are the pay inequalities for new entrants and the low pay generally that nurses and midwives and some health care workers have to put up with. So there's a double advantage in pay increases and pay equality for health care workers. One, it will reward the heroes. One, it will reward the damage to the protection of البtaisaf. One, it will reward the fears death contribution they have made to the country in relation to addressing the COVID-19 emergency. The innovation, the commitment, the trauma that many workers endured in terms of communicating with family who lost loved ones and who couldn't be with their loved ones at the time of passing. I think anybody who saw the RT Investigates program in respect of the impact of COVID-19 and one hospital would have been very taken by the experiences of the frontline workers, the emotional experiences, apart altogether from their professional contribution. And so we're very conscious of that. Now, the French package was perhaps in a different context as well. There were other issues in terms of the wider package. And again, as a country, we've had to deal with an enormous issue here. This year, we'll have a deficit of about 30 billion at the end of the year. And so obviously, these are issues that we continue to examine. There are continuing pressures. The July stimulus is about trying to help people to get back to work and again, supporting livelihoods of those who have no job at all at the moment and whose prospects are uncertain because of the continued prevalence of COVID-19 in our community. So this is a step-by-step approach. COVID is not over. And we have to plan not just for the next three months, but also for the next 12 months in terms of what a financial planning, economic planning and how we allocate resources right now, in terms of trying to deal with the range of impacts that COVID is having on different sectors of our society and of our economy.
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