Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome our witnesses this morning. I thank them very much for their introductory remarks. We have all seen evidence of the stress that can be caused by this particular complaint. I will ask whether, for instance, smokers are particularly vulnerable. We used to hear it in days gone by. My father suffered from something similar, which was called emphysema at the time. He smoked heavily, but it was not the cause of his death. Unfortunately, something else intervened in between. What about Covid-19? Was the situation affected by Covid? It was anticipated that Covid would affect respiratory illnesses.