Neasa Hourigan (Dublin Central, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their attendance. I am cognisant of the seriousness of the spectrum of issues we are discussing. I will use my time to focus on the issue of long Covid because it is an emerging issue. Like a lot of people, I am trying to get a good handle on it. It is one of those issues arising out of the Covid pandemic that we possibly will be dealing with long into the future.

Many of us were able to stay home during the pandemic but that was not an option for a lot of healthcare staff, who took a risk in going into work everyday and being repeatedly exposed to infection. As I understand it, there is a substantial cohort of workers, with whom the unions will have engaged, whose symptoms may not have improved after two or three years. People who come to me have spoken about symptoms like fatigue, joint pain, shortness of breath, insomnia, vertigo and others I will not list. There seems to be a disproportionate number of healthcare workers affected. I am aware of the State's role in this because those workers were repeatedly exposed to infection, often in circumstances in which they had inadequate personal protective equipment, PPE, and perhaps were not called for vaccination when they should have been. I am aware of a few cases, for example, in which managerial or administrative staff were called for vaccination before front-line workers.

I have put in a few parliamentary questions on this issue and my understanding is that many of the affected staff are currently on special leave with payment of their basic salary, but this scheme is due to end in June. The response to my latest question to the Department of Social Protection states:

Covid-19 does not constitute a prescribed disease or illness as set out in the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005 as it does not meet the criteria laid down in the Act... [which] states that a disease or injury shall be prescribed for the purposes of this section in relation to any insured persons, where the Minister is satisfied that- (a) it ought to be treated, having regard to its causes and any other relevant considerations, as a risk of their occupations and not as a risk common to all persons, and

(b) it is such that, in the absence of special circumstances, the attribution of particular cases to the nature of the employment can be established...

When it comes to Covid-19 and front-line healthcare workers, I would have thought that could be established. However, the Department of Social Protection does not categorise them as having been more at risk of Covid-19 infection than an average person in the workplace who had the option of staying at home and isolating.

Many of the unions have been campaigning to introduce an occupational injury scheme for healthcare workers with severe long Covid. It is not necessarily an easy condition to diagnose, with there being a very long list of potential symptoms. However, such a scheme has been introduced in France, Italy, Germany, Denmark and Sweden. Provision in this regard has been recommended by the EU's Strategic Framework on Health and Safety at Work 2021-2027. I am interested in the opinion of all the witnesses on this issue. Placing people on standard sick pay will, in effect, be a pathway to early medical retirement for many of them, unless there is a major treatment breakthrough, which we hope there will be. We are talking about people in their 30s, 40s and 50s.

I have a number of questions on this issue, which I will put before asking the witnesses to respond within the five minutes allowed to me. It is hard to get numbers on this but I would like to get a sense or estimate, in the opinion of the represented groups, of how many healthcare workers might be affected.

I am hearing that some healthcare staff are feeling increasingly under pressure from occupational health departments to return to work on reduced hours and with adaptations to their roles, which will have an impact on their working life into the future. This is happening even though many of these people might feel they are still severely impaired by their symptoms, as may be the case with other conditions, and will struggle to do daily tasks or complete their work. How are the witnesses advising people who are being advised to go back to work on reduced hours? What are they advising in regard to the arrangements for special Covid leave with pay and in situations in which people trial a return to work and it does not work out for them?

Is it cut entirely or can the person go back on the payment? Is that something people are experiencing? What supports do people have in terms of dealing with that occupational health department when the more complex issues arise? What happens when an occupational health physician is recommending that the person should return to work but the person does not feel he or she can?

In the longer term, I am interested in hearing what the pay outcome will be for people who are experiencing long Covid. How are the unions going to approach this issue? Is there a possibility for collective settlement for different strands of healthcare workers?