Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will make one point. Mr. Rónán Hession was before the committee last week. At the end of the engagement, I asked him about the commitment the Minister have given regarding designating long Covid as an occupational illness. Mr. Hession updated us on that point and, disappointingly, we are still awaiting responses back from the Department of Health. It is the staff of the Department of Health who will benefit from that designation. The point I made to Mr. Hession was that the emerging medical evidence in terms of the management and care for people with long Covid recommends incremental return to work. The difficulty is that the illness benefit does not facilitate that at present.

Invalidity pension does, where you have the partial capacity benefit, etc., but illness benefit does not. While I accept the points the Department has made regarding the straw man about looking in the more medium term on the issues related to disability and invalidity, this is an issue in the short term that needs to be addressed. We are bringing forward regulations here because of the changes that have been thrust upon us because of the pandemic. We have brought forward the previous straw man on pay-related benefits because it has been thrust upon us because of the pandemic. Here is a real problem in terms of disability that has been thrust upon us because of the pandemic and it cannot wait for the next Minister in the next Administration to bring forward legislation in this area. These are people who are suffering today where their medical advice is to go back for a couple of hours a day or one day a week but they will lose their illness benefit if they do that. This delays their recovery and rehabilitation and leads to the Department ultimately paying out more in disability payments. I would ask Mr. McKeon to take that point back and to look at that specific point in the interim based on the motivation for what is before us here today and what was before us here last week, which are the changing circumstances arising from the pandemic; long Covid is a condition only associated with this pandemic.