Over 2,000 letters from private and voluntary nursing home staff were delivered to the Department of Health this afternoon.
A demonstration was organised by Nursing Homes Ireland, which estimates that around 40,000 private nursing home staff have still not received the Covid-19 Special Recognition Payment.
The Taoiseach has said that he is disappointed that the payment has not yet been paid to all healthcare workers.
Micheál Martin told the Dáil that around 123,750 staff received the €1,000 payment, but that a "much faster methodology" must be found to pay remaining non-HSE workers.
It followed questions from People Before Profit TD Gino Kenny, who said that the situation was "an absolute embarrassment", when compared with the salary increase that TDs had received through Budget 2023.
"Everyone was clapping them six months ago, a year ago, and now they get nothing", Deputy Kenny told the Dáil.
Julie McNeela, Household Manager at Áras Mhuire Nursing Facility, explained that she and her colleagues "feel very let down".
"We were trying to keep Covid out of our building, we were trying to save lives, we were trying to reassure our elderly," she said.
Sister Mary Ward, a resident of Maryfield Nursing Home in Chapleizod, also joined today's demonstration.
The 84-year-old explained that the carers in her home were "extraordinary".
"It's a small token, it's not a reward, it's a small token of gratitude for committing themselves to such difficult work," she said.
Tadhg Daly of Nursing Homes Ireland said that staff were very frustrated over the delay in processing the payment.
"It was announced in January, this should have been done in March and April, and this should have been paid in my mind before the summer like it was for other staff right across the health service," he said.
This morning the Labour party accused the Government of not showing enough urgency on the matter.
Duncan Smith said that the Government "committed to this payment without knowing the full extent of the workers they were going to have to pay, and they say they're going to have it paid before Christmas, but I would have my doubts".
