How about a Covid bonus for heroic retail staff ?

WITH growing pressure on the hospital system from the Delta variant, it might be a tad premature for the Taoiseach to be ‘actively’ considering a bonus for health workers.

But it’s also arguably very unfair, singling out our HSE heroes while ignoring the sacrifice of thousands of other frontline workers.

Staff in retail, on our buses and trains and in our postal system kept the country ticking over, allowing health workers to carry out their vital role and the rest of the workforce retreat to their homes.

They risked their health and juggled childcare problems to provide an essential service in quite extraordinary circumstances.

Supermarket workers had it particularly rough. For the minimum wage they dealt with an enormous turnover of usually stressed-out customers over long shifts with only a thin Perspex sheet and squirt of hand gel for protection.

Yet there is no earnest discussion about whether these unsung heroes deserve a financial bonus or more annual leave. No Alan Kelly calling for a €1,000 pandemic payment for those who emptied the bins or delivered the post while households remained behind closed doors.

Snobbery rather than social solidarity still prevails and some workers are more equal than others.

There is no taking from the work carried out by the nurses in ICU or the doctors who treat Covid. But by offering bonuses to one part of the workforce while ignoring the other, the State affirms the distinction between honourable work and thankless drudgery.