I again raise the issue of the Covid-19 pandemic recognition payment. There was much fanfare about this payment and we all supported it but many workers have not received it.

They include many care assistants who work in the private sector. They were outside the Department of Health today and issued 1,700 individual letters to that Department on the non-payment of this. It is shambolic. Deputies get €1,000 because of the budget and front-line workers who were protecting our mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters still have not received that payment. It is an absolute embarrassment. Will the Taoiseach intervene personally to say these workers will get the payment as soon as possible?

Which workers?

Care assistants, front-line workers. Everybody was clapping them six months or a year ago and now they get nothing.

About 123,750 staff in the HSE have received the recognition payment. I am disappointed that many of those entitled to the payment have still not received it. We have discussed this at Government level, particularly in terms of private nursing homes, hospices and section 39 organisations. We want to work out a much faster methodology. The HSE has been dealing with this and is anxious from an accountability point of view that anything done is above scrutiny and can be accounted for. That said, in respect of a number of sectors approved for this payment, in the Government's view there is disappointment that it has not happened and there is an urgency to get it done.

Imagine how they feel. The Taoiseach is disappointed. They are waiting for the €1,000.

It is shambolic.

They put their lives on the line for us.