A one-off €1,000 tax free payment is set to be given to public healthcare workers.
It comes as a plan was passed by Cabinet this morning and will see public healthcare workers who worked on-site in an exposed Covid-19 setting during the pandemic.
It won't be restricted to clinical staff and will apply to the likes of porters and attendants in hospitals.
Nursing students, defence forces staff seconded to the HSE and private staff in hospices and nursing homes will also qualify for the payment.
According to RTE News, an additional public holiday and national commemorative event, to remember people who lost their lives due to Covid, will take place on March 18th this year.
While a new bank holiday is also in place for February 2023 to mark St Brigid's Day.
It's believed Government initially wanted it in place for this year, but the 1st February date wouldn't give employers enough of a lead-in time.
Initially, a Thanksgiving Bank Holiday was proposed by Government - which always falls on the fourth Thursday in October - but opposition to the idea saw a date chosen that was more appropriate to Ireland and her history.
The new Bank Holiday is set to be among five new workers' rights announced by Government in the coming weeks.
Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said yesterday that statutory sick pay; the right to request remote working; the protection of tips; and new redundancy rights for people who were laid off during the pandemic would be added to the additional public holiday to "bring us more in line with our European peers.”
Several European countries have 11, 12 or 13 bank holidays every year, compared to just nine in Ireland.
