Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Maybe I should not have named them but we became very familiar to the hierarchy during the Covid-19 pandemic including the Chief Medical Officer, the National Public Health Emergency Team, NPHET, and the HSE and that is fine. They certainly led the public response to Covid-19 but now a lot of people in the workplace find themselves being referred on to private health screening bodies.

It was important that we had very clear, centralised advice all the way through the pandemic. It is important also that whatever information we have centrally in Ireland, or, indeed, from colleagues overseas, particularly in Europe, would be shared with any such body that would be screening employees returning to the workplace or remaining out of the workplace as the case may be. It is a struggle for some people and it manifests itself in different ways. It could be a sniffle for one person but it could floor another person for months and months. This is the problem with long Covid. Sometimes what cannot be seen is not always understood, measured or signed off on. That is something that people are struggling with.