Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

One of my constituents contracted Covid in January 2021. This is one of many stories. He was diagnosed with long Covid three weeks ago. His symptoms have been present all this time and have made it impossible for him to carry out the simplest of tasks, such as driving, going to the local shops and even walking short distances. He has had to give up sports such as hurling, football, soccer and golf. His life is no longer the same because of this. He was due to fly to Australia in August 2021 but had to cancel all his plans because his symptoms have not improved. He would consider himself a young, healthy and fit individual who was involved in everything but can no longer live his life appropriately the way he used to before Covid. He has also been unable to work for months now and fears he will never be capable to return with his current condition. Due to this, he had applied for illness benefit and was turned down, which is ridiculous. Through sheer determination, he was eventually able to receive a community welfare payment. He has spent quite a substantial amount of money over the past six months on hospital bills and medication without any support from the Government. It is a disgrace that he was turned down illness benefit payment in the beginning and that he had to go about obtaining his own long Covid clinic appointment in Dublin. There are very few support networks out there. I would suggest that this be urgently rectified for all of those throughout the country who have been tragically affected so that individuals such as this man can begin the journey of hopefully getting their lives back on track in the near future. Surely the Government, which paid so much attention to locking down the country for months on end during the pandemic, should not now turn its back on people who are suffering from the lingering impacts of Covid. This is the situation of one of my constituents. It is the unfortunate situation of quite a lot of people.

We are calling it long Covid, but others might say it is the effects of the vaccination. We do not know. What I am saying is that this is a very serious situation and it should be looked at.

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