Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I do not think anyone has criticised the people in post and if that is the impression that was given, it is the wrong one. I think that people are saying there are key elements of the teams that are missing and maybe some need to be beefed up more than others. The brain fog would not be unusual for anyone who comes out of a serious operation. It is quite common in that sense. The scary thing for a lot of people is that we all know someone in that situation. The anecdotal evidence is that a lot of people seem to be suffering from it. I know people who lost their sense of taste or smell and it has never really come back. If you lose your sense of taste, it is a huge thing.

As for the other elements, the psychological fatigue, the number of people who are front-line workers who are now out sick, we are talking about people, some of whom have not been able to go back to work. There is a huge cost involved to being sick in Ireland. Are there any recommendations on medical card access? Do the witnesses expect that to come out of the HIQA report on this issue? If you are looking to avail of all this expertise, it is quite expensive and just being in hospital is quite expensive in Ireland.