'I worked every day of Covid': Nursing home staff write 2,000 letters of protest over delay in pandemic bonus

Jim O'Brien, chef with Darraglynn Nursing Home, Cork; Dominika Lewicka, senior care staff, Marymount Care Centre; and Catherine Shallow, activities lead at Marymount Care Centre deliver letters to the Department of Health on Tuesday. Picture Colin Keegan/ Collins 

More than 2,000 letters of protest have been handed to the Department of Health from nursing home staff who are still waiting for their pandemic bonus.

A bonus payment of €1,000 was announced for all healthcare staff in January, but 40,000 staff in private and voluntary homes are still waiting, along with thousands working in other areas as healthcare assistants, cleaners, social care assistants, porters and security staff.