Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The terms of reference of this committee are to examine the response to Covid-19. It is obvious after the evidence we have heard today, which I have found shocking and distressing, that the response was not adequate. That is putting it mildly. The infection rate among healthcare workers, as Ms Ní Sheaghdha said, is the highest in the world, with 88% of those workers having acquired the illness due to their occupation. I want to ask her about the 4,823 healthcare workers who are currently out because they are too ill to work as a result of their occupation. How are they coping and what supports are in place for them? Have they received anything extra in terms of supports to help them from a mental health point of view and to look after their children at this most distressing time? When people are well and going to work, they have to make sure their children are looked after. We know that 62% of parents took annual leave, 48% of spouses and partners took leave and 30% took parental leave. Where are those 4,823 workers left now, too sick to be in work and too sick, I presume, to look after their own children? Was anything offered to them?