Oireachtas na hÉireann,

In January this year, your Government announced that Healthcare workers in Ireland would be recognised for the vital role played in the Covid19 Pandemic. General Practice Nurses, however, were excluded from this recognition. Although no definite explantation has been given, Government officials have alluded this is due to Practice Nurses being "privately employed". The illusion has been cast that we do not need recognition from our Government and that our "private employers" will do this instead. This is false and this has not- and will not happen. We have not been recognised. We seek recognition by our country, our Government. We have been excluded and discriminated against.

The majority of our work is HSE work. We can assure that we were put at just as much risk to our health as any during the depths of the pandemic. General Practice Nurses never once closed their doors. We continued to vaccinate your children, we screened your families for cancer, we provided your colleagues with immunity to The Virus and we comforted your infirm and bereaved throughout. But we are not deserving? We are a pillar of Irish Healthcare Provision and without the role played by Practice Nurses during the Pandemic, the Country would have suffered so much further. 

Do You know how many Covid Vaccines we gave? Do you know how many of us are suffering from the long term side effects of long covid? Do you know how many further pandemics we prevented by continuing to vaccinate the infants of Ireland? Do you know how many of us have been forced to double, triple our workload? Because of the increased demand your Government loaded on us. Do you know how many of us have swallowed tears under our masks as we have been told none of it really mattered? We are not equal to other nurses according to your exclusion of us. Do you understand the impact that this had had on Practice Nursing? The implication this will have on the future of General Practice- by telling these nurses that they are not worth it, that they are secondary. 

We trust your Government will reconsider this stark error in judgement and include General Practice Nurses in the Healthcare workers Bonus Payment. 

Signed General Practice Nurses,