Sinn Féin spokesperson on Health Louise O’Reilly TD has called the government’s childcare plans for healthcare workers ’embarrassingly poor’ and has said they come nowhere near close to delivering what is needed.

Teachta O’Reilly said:

“On Wednesday, 11th March I asked the government to put in place a plan to address childcare issues for healthcare workers once schools would close. 

“When this happened, I again asked for a workable solution to be found and I have reiterated that call countless times over the past month. However, it took until yesterday for the government to make any move to address this issue.

“Unfortunately, the plan they have produced is embarrassingly poor and comes nowhere near close to delivering what is needed.

“The plan to give paid leave to public sector staff whose partners are healthcare workers as a means to address childcare issues will not rectify the problems faced by the vast majority of healthcare workers.

“The INMO have called the government’s plan “worse than irrelevant” and I wholeheartedly agree with that assessment.

“The plan does nothing for the vast majority of healthcare staff and actively discriminates against single parents.

“The government need to sit down with Unions and workers and come up with a solution that addresses this issue in a meaningful way.”