Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Regional Group and Deputy Naughten for bringing this motion to the House. No more than the Labour Party and others, the Regional Group does not have Private Members' business very often so an awful lot of thought and care go into choosing the issues deemed to be of importance. A thorough debate in the Dáil on this issue is long overdue.

People suffering from long Covid are fast becoming one of a number of forgotten elements of the Covid pandemic. The pandemic is still with us in many ways. We hope we will not see the days of 2020 and 2021 again but the sufferers of long Covid are living with the condition and its ramifications every day. I asked a few people over the past couple of days whether they knew anyone with long Covid or had any experience of it. Those who did not thought long Covid was people suffering from fatigue. Anyone who has met someone with long Covid or has been contacted by constituents, as I and others have, will know that it is far more complex and life-altering than that. One person who contacted me contracted Covid in September 2020. This person was unable to work for almost a year. This person works as a photographer but literally could not hold the camera steady for ten months due to muscle fatigue. Even though the person is back at work, they need an assistant with them if they are on an all-day job so they can complete a full day. The assistant is needed to carry bags, such is the level of fatigue. The person in question considers themselves one of the lucky ones who has largely recovered from long Covid but states that the health supports that are needed are not widely available.

Another primary school teacher who contracted Covid in January 2022 returned to work at the end of August in advance of this school year. They have crashed many times being unable to complete their school day and have not received the support within the workplace they need and deserve. This person has reluctantly handed in their resignation. This is a teacher leaving our education service because of the impact of long Covid at a time when we need teachers. This is not a person at the end of their career. This person said they have a mortgage, kids and all the bills and cost-of-living pressures but they just cannot continue to work.

Someone else with long Covid symptoms since March 2020 said they know only too well that the health supports needed to deal with this are not widely available and the person has had to travel abroad to get the services they need. Another woman wrote on behalf of her daughter, who was a young healthy 37-year-old at the time of contracting Covid and was working on the front line. She was infected in March 2020, has not been able to work since then and has again been forced to travel. This is person who has spent two and a half years suffering, first with Covid and now with long Covid, and has had to travel abroad for treatment. This is a healthcare worker who has worked on the front line.

The final example I will share today involves someone who again contracted Covid in March 2020 and has since developed long Covid. This person has not worked since then. This person was being treated in the Blanchardstown clinic before it was closed. They were supposed to be transferred to the clinic at Beaumont Hospital. The person's GP keeps referring them for tests and most of the time, the tests come back not showing anything. There are no further tests and the suffering goes on. This person is being moved from Billy to Jack in the health service and is getting nowhere. This is a very serious case.

The number of people suffering from long Covid is growing because people are still contracting the disease. Yet, as this motion speaks to, what underpins this lack of service is the failure to recruit and retain healthcare professionals throughout our health service. As we move towards the end of 2022 and into 2023, the people who are suffering long Covid are increasingly feeling forgotten by our health service and political class. That is why it is important we are discussing this issue.

A related issue, which I have raised with the Minister previously, is counselling for people who have lost someone to Covid. There is a unique experience if someone was lost a loved one to Covid and did not have the ability to say goodbye in person, to grieve or to have a funeral with family members present. Those wounds are still open in families all over the country. Again, we need to pay attention so that those people are not forgotten.

Yesterday, Deputy Nash and I spoke to workers - contract cleaners, caterers and security staff - along with their trade union, SIPTU. These workers have not received their pandemic recognition payment. This is another forgotten element of the Covid pandemic.

This motion is very clear in what it is asking for. Regarding its acknowledgement at the start of the delays in the NTPF, difficulties in recruiting in GP and primary care services and acute hospitals and patient waiting lists in emergency departments, we see this repeated and continued near collapse and permacrisis that exists in our health service just to keep acute services and emergency services running, which means that further down the line, people with long Covid and post-viral respiratory or non-respiratory conditions are not being given the services they need.

I commend the motion. I know it is not being opposed by Government, which is its trick, but it has our full support. What we would like to see after this is a real long-term plan - not a winter plan or an emergency plan - to ensure the people who are suffering with long Covid get the symptomatic treatment they need in the hope that they can recover or at least manage their symptoms to such an extent that they will be able to lead a fuller life than the life they are leading now. Thousands of people are suffering and not enough is being done.

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