Peter Fitzpatrick (Louth, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am going to read from an email I received from a constituent of mine whose sister has long Covid:

I am writing in relation to a motion being debated by the Dáil on Wednesday of this week. The motion calls on the Government to take immediate steps to provide the supports needed by those suffering from Long Covid, to establish professional Long Covid hubs and to acknowledge the fact that Long Covid is an occupational injury/disease affecting frontline workers, including those who contracted Covid in a work environment outside the healthcare environment.

My sister, Liz, is a 56-year-old primary school Special Education teacher who contracted Covid-19 in a school in December 2021. She is now suffering from severe Long Covid symptoms and has been off work since. Her life is seriously impacted with ongoing long term chronic health issues and serious financial concerns. Because she is unable to work, she is seriously stressed about her future, her pension and the fact that her illness is not recognised as an occupational injury, which impacts her entitlement to financial cover for periods off-work.

Because of Long Covid, the cost to her of medical appointments, scans and medicines since December last is in excess of €3,000 and climbing, at a time when her financial future is increasingly unclear. More importantly, and more distressing for those of us who care about Liz, is the life-limiting effects of this horrible disease. An active, life-loving person in her mid-50s is reduced to a life of exhaustion, brain fog, breathlessness, memory issues, pain and distress, with no end in sight. This is compounded by months of being referred from one organisation or service to another as each absolves themselves from responsibility by referring her on. The response from others is to send endless paperwork and forms to a person with a seriously-reduced ability to absorb detail and to action any of these processes.

Liz was a brilliant schoolteacher. She attended at school when required to do so at a time when Covid was rife. She did so at a time when the Minister for Education, Norma Foley, declared - without any qualification - that schools were safe. They were not. Liz caught Covid in her Special Ed classroom in the primary school in Dromiskin, Co Louth. She was required to attend at work in what transpired to be a dangerous environment. She does not blame her school or Board of Management, as they operated as required by the Department of Education. But she does, quite correctly, want to be supported when she suffers in such an horrific way from simply doing her job. She deserves to be treated with respect and for restrictive and ill-informed processes and supports to be adjusted with the clarity of hindsight.

Health care workers who contracted Covid at their workplace have received an exemption from the ending of the Long Covid sick pay scheme, at least until mid-2023. This exemption applies to all those who worked in a healthcare setting, whether nurses, porters, catering staff, receptionists. Liz and her family have no problem with that. Everyone who contracted Covid in a public sector work setting when they were required by their employer to attend at their workplace should be minded financially and emotionally until they are fit to return to work. If Liz had suffered bone injuries at work or other occupational injuries, she would be minded. Because she has Long Covid, she is approaching a situation where she will no longer receive full sick pay and her pension entitlements could also be adversely affected. This is not fair or moral under any code.

In terms of the motion before the Dail on Wednesday, Liz and her family and friends support every aspect of it but, in particular, we support the proposal that Long Covid caught in the workplace be designated as an occupational injury and that all and any financial supports, including pensions, are not detrimentally affected by virtue of time lost through illness arising from Long Covid.

Please support the motion in the Dail on Wednesday and please urge your party colleagues to do likewise. For those affected by Long Covid, it is the health equivalent of the Mica scandal. Long Covid sufferers are cursed with the appalling effects of an illness that they have contracted through no fault of their own but that goes to the core of their ability to function and to live as people should.

This is a plea to the better instincts of all right-thinking people. Distinctions should not be made between those who have contracted this awful illness and comprehensive supports should be provided to all. And the drawing of distinctions between categories of public servants, in terms of their rights and financial supports, is insidious and arbitrary and unworthy. My sister contracted this awful disease in a schoolroom in Co Louth. She should not be treated differently to a healthcare worker who contracted the same disease in the hospital 15 miles away in Drogheda. They were both frontline workers doing their job during the worst of times. She deserves more than that. Her family and friends will continue to fight on her behalf.

Long Covid is an occupational injury. I have only referenced one example, but I am sure the Members in each group can provide others. I know the Minister of State is going to support us, but action must be taken.

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