Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change) | Oireachtas source

I fully support this amendment. We have a duty of care to health workers, cleaners etc., in particular, to those workers we asked to work in retail shops, and to all those working in areas on the front line. If we received a report on this, we might then seriously consider there should be an occupational illness for people with Covid-19. I have met so many people in my constituency who have contacted me about being ill with neurological symptoms, and not so much issues with the lungs. This has been consistent and one particular woman, Miriam Cullen, who was in the Dáil when Deputy Naughten’s Bill was going through in Private Members’ time, has been out of work since the very start, practically, in March 2020. All of her family got it because her mother was ill at the time and was in a nursing home. She cannot and has not been able to work since then. This is something we should look at seriously. This is a new illness and we should be recognising it.

See this speech in context