Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their presentations this morning. I wish to deal with long Covid, which is an issue other speakers have already raised. I was looking at the progress being made in the UK on this, and my understanding is that there are now more than 80 NHS clinics specifically dealing with long Covid. What is the proposal for setting up specialist clinics in this area? I am not sure if the witnesses touched on that earlier. Perhaps they did and I missed it. There is evidence from several European countries. In one survey, for instance, 40% of patients had persistent fatigue 60 days after first being diagnosed with Covid. Sixty days later, another 30% were suffering from breathlessness. Do we need to set up specialist clinics to deal with this issue because there are many people who have long Covid?