Today, a further 16 Covid–related deaths were sadly reported in Northern Ireland. My deepest condolences go the loved ones of those who have sadly passed away.

Yet again, we see the destruction this pandemic causes and the heartbreak it leaves in its wake. Once again from this podium, I plead with everyone to never underestimate this virus, and to never let their guard slip.

We are making progress in forcing down infection numbers. When I say “we”, I mean people right across Northern Ireland who are abiding by the regulations and the restrictions.

Staying at home is making a difference. The R number has been moving in the right direction.

We have to sustain and build on that progress.

We have to stop Covid-19 spreading and ease the pressures on our health and social care systems.

So keep staying at home. If you have to go out, keep your distance from others. Avoid in particular, crowded indoor spaces with no ventilation.

We must keep washing our hands, keep covering our faces. We all know the drill by now; we have to stick with it.

It still frankly beggars belief that there are still some people in our midst who deny or play down the true scale of this pandemic.

We still have those armchair experts, who spout simplistic ideas and snipe at everything and try to undermine what work is being done by those heroes in our health service.

The reality is, we as a health service and a society are living through the challenge of our lifetimes, the battle of our lifetimes.

It is a challenge that is complex, all-consuming and relentless.

There have been many tough days from the onset of this pandemic. But similarly there have been many examples of collective and individual heroism, and none more so than from our health and social care workers.

There are no words to properly convey what they have done for us. We will never be able to repay that debt.

Last spring we stood on our doorsteps every Thursday evening and clapped for our heroes. And whilst it was a thoughtful display of support I think we all knew that it was never enough and that they deserved more than just our thanks and well-wishes.

So at the end of last year I asked my officials to rapidly develop an option to administer a one-off pro-rated payment for all our health and social care workers.

Today, I am pleased to be able to announce that I have decided to and approved to proceed with a special recognition payment of £500 for Northern Ireland’s health workers, and that was subject of course to Department of Finance approval. And that’s all our staff – so our doctors, our nurses, our care home workers, our domiciliary care workers – including those working in the independent sector- , our admin staff and our estates teams. This is similar to a team in Scotland.

But to head off some of the nit-picking, potentially from the media, let me make clear that I value all our staff. Despite what you might have heard recently, there is no neat dividing line between frontline and non-frontline.

As Health Minister I value each and every personal contribution equally because it keeps our health service running. Try running a hospital without cleaners, porters, cooks, IT specialists, managers, PPE supplies staff, payroll staff, drivers, administrators booking in appointments. They’re all hugely important and integral to the overall work of our health and social care system.

This payment will not be without its challenges. For some people, especially some of our lower paid workers, it may in fact have an adverse impact on their social security payments or supports that recipients may be claiming. So I have written to the Ministers of Finance and Communities asking them to urgently consider and support the issue and to engage with the tax and benefit authorities in the UK to request that these payments are excluded from considerations in this regard.

And whilst the UK nations are still negotiating a new pay deal for our National Health Service Agenda for Change staff this payment – and I want to be clear – this payment will have no bearing on that.

I’m also acutely aware that it’s not just our staff that have stepped forward over the last 11 months - but also our students. 

Recently in England the Nursing and Midwifery Council re-introduced emergency measures similar to those implemented in the first wave of the pandemic. Those measures have enabled final year nursing students to take paid clinical placements.

Taking account of the profound pressures of the pandemic and significant nursing workforce challenges, this is something I was also eager to explore as an option for supporting our own beleaguered workforce.

However after engaging with my nursing officers and with our universities it was quickly apparent that if Northern Ireland were to implement the paid placement option for our current third year students they would be faced with a number of major detrimental consequences.

This cohort of students have already experienced significant disruption to their pre-registration programme during their second year, owing to the Nursing and Midwifery Council emergency standards that were in place last year, during the first wave.

Introducing a paid placement option would have imposed further major disruption on these students at an important stage in their final year pre-registration programme and will have likely prolonged the programme and actually ultimately delayed their Nursing and Midwifery Council registration and subsequent joining the registrant fulltime workforce. My objective is to get these students across the line and into the mainstream workforce as quickly as possible, where they want to be.

However I’m also hugely mindful that our students have made an enormous contribution – and continue to do so. So today I can also confirm that I have decided to proceed with a flat rate, one-off, special recognition payment of £2,000 to all non-salaried, qualifying students, those who have been on clinical placement over the period between 1st October 2020 to 31 March 2021. The qualifying courses are the Nursing and Midwifery course, Allied Health Professional, Social Work and Physician Associate pre-registration programmes which have been commissioned by my Department from Queen’s University Belfast and the Ulster University.

Finally, we must never underestimate the contribution of our carers.  Carers have been among the greatest unsung heroes of the coronavirus pandemic. So I can also confirm that it is my intention provide our carers with a one-off award as a small recognition for the exceptional contribution that they make to our society.

However there is still more work to be done in this regard, and it will be significantly more complex to administer than the staff payment. It will also require engagement with Executive colleagues and I hope to be able to meet some of our carers in the days ahead to try to find a way forward and a mechanism on this regard.   

Throughout this pandemic, an overriding priority has been to protect our health service, to keep it standing. Supporting it so it can support you.

So far, that has been done, at great cost. And that is thanks to the staff at all levels rights across our Health Service.