Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 5:

In page 5, between lines 26 and 27, to insert the following: “10.Section 69(1) of the Principal Act is amended, in the definition of “medical examination” by the insertion of the word “virological” after “bacteriological,”.”.

I will speak to amendments Nos. 5 and 6 because they are the same. I do not wish to tick tack back and forth on the same set of amendments.

I tabled amendments Nos. 5 and 6 on the issue of long Covid, about which I spoke at length during Second Stage of the Bill. I want to see long Covid designated as an occupational illness for all front-line workers who contracted the virus due to their employment. We need to see long Covid listed as an occupational illness, allowing front-line workers to avail of long-term income assistance until they are actually fit to return to work.

At present, only healthcare workers who were out sick prior to 15 November 2021, which was prior to the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 being detected, are able to avail of paid leave. This will cease in June of next year if they have not made a recovery that allows them to return to work within that period. This applies only to public sector workers who contracted the virus prior to 15 November of last year.

All other front-line workers, including healthcare workers who are out sick due to having contracted long Covid as a result of picking up the virus in work, are now excluded from any support through their employer. This applies to any front-line workers outside of the public service who contracted long Covid as a result of their employment, as they are also excluded from the occupational illness schemes.

I understand from a EUROSTAT survey carried out last year that the only two member states of the European Union that have categorically ruled out making provision for long Covid as an occupational illness are ourselves and Greece.Denmark, Italy, Latvia and Slovenia have put in place specific provisions. Other countries such as Norway and Israel have also done that. It acknowledges the fact that people who were in front-line, people-facing jobs during the pandemic and subsequently contracted the virus and ended up with long Covid are getting support.

We asked them to run our hospitals and supermarkets and support people with disabilities. We are talking about a very small cohort of people as a proportion of all those who contracted the virus, but we are now turning our backs on those individuals. That is not fair or right.

I know healthcare workers have taken this up with the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, and that he has come back to the workers in correspondence advising that officials in the Department of Social Protection, who operate the national occupational injuries benefit scheme, said Covid-19 does not constitute a prescribed disease or illness as set out in the Social Welfare Consolidation Act, of which we are aware, and that these officials have no intention of revising this position. That is not good enough.

For healthcare workers, an arbitrary date of 7 February 2022 has been chosen, prior to which they had to be out of work for 84 days. I have asked for the basis for choosing the 7 February date and for the 84 days prior to that, which brings us back to 11 November 2021. There is no basis for it. These dates have literally been plucked out of the sky and we are completely excluding from any support anyone who contracted the Omicron strain of the virus, which was the most contagious strain of the virus, even if that person was a healthcare worker. Other front-line workers are also being excluded.

Long Covid is costing at least half a billion euro in lost work and welfare costs alone. The data provided by the Minister to me have shown that 0.81% of all those who contracted Covid-19 and who claimed enhanced benefit were still out of work 12 weeks later. If that were to be extrapolated to the population, it would equate to €586 million in lost welfare payments and wages. Some of these healthcare workers - I gave an example in the House on an earlier occasion - have gone to very significant financial cost themselves in trying to manage this illness.

I gave the example of one young fit woman, a specialist clinical physiotherapist, who has gone to a plethora of private clinics, which she has paid for, and now has a monthly bill for medication of €270, which is not covered under the General Medical Services, GMS, or the drug refund scheme. She is receiving zilch from the State, even though she worked right the way through the pandemic. Because she ended up with the Omicron strain and subsequently ended up with long Covid, she is being ignored. There are hundreds more people in a similar situation. Will the Minister seriously consider acknowledging that long Covid is debilitating and that, in a certain number of employments, the infection has in all probability been developed and picked up through those employments? Those people need to be acknowledged by the welfare system and I very much ask the Minister to consider these amendments.

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