They were both recently informed they could no longer avail of a Health Service Executive temporary accommodation scheme and were then placed in Direct Provision centres between 90-200km from their place of work.
Before the pandemic Maria, who is also an asylum-seeker, was living in a Direct Provision centre in Dublin. "My manager tried to write to the HSE, but they were like: "no we cannot extend it because you don't have an outbreak at the nursing home", she said. In a statement to RTÉ News the HSE said "the temporary accommodation scheme for staff has been very successful and it is not being discontinued".
"The workers can't access the scheme and yet the HSE is saying it's there, so, many healthcare workers are being forced back into direct provision often very very far from where they work," Ms Smith said. CHO East said that it's "chief Officer will continue to engage with local service managers in relation to the operation of the Accommodation Scheme.
Maria has since started a new job at another nursing home. While she is vaccinated she remains concerned about the risks of sharing living spaces in the Direct Provision centre with people who are not.