Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The answer to my question is "No"; that is the short answer the Minister is giving. I acknowledge that but I will continue to bang the drum on this. I am worried that there is a statistically significant cohort of persons who ordinarily will go from the enhanced payment to illness benefit, the clock will tick down the two years and then they potentially will fall off the cliff if they are not eligible to move onto an invalidity or long-term payment, as devised by the Department. The worry I have for those people is that the Department might be too stringent in how it applies rules and the criteria that they must meet for illness benefit payment.

I merely ask the Minister to carry out some early stage research, perhaps with the Department of Health and the HSE, for instance, to see how long Covid is affecting people who ordinarily would be back in the workplace, but who, for very valid clinically indicated reasons based on a determination that it is due to long Covid, will not be back in the workplace any time soon. Those are the people I am thinking of.

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