Healthcare workers who can’t find childcare will be able to stay at home and still be paid.
The HSE has told unions that normal salary plus allowances would be paid if all other roster options are exhausted but unions are waiting for confirmation in writing.
The HSE said it intends to be ‘as flexible as possible’ when it comes to childcare.
Fianna Fáil’s spokesperson for children, Anne Rabbitte, says frontline workers’ personal lives have been badly impacted.
“We have to just look at the work people are doing on the frontline and how it impacts also on their private life, on their children and not being able to bring childcare into their homes or access it successfully for the last number of weeks has added an awful lot of strain while they were already doing an already stressful job.”
