Neasa Hourigan (Dublin Central, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Ireland has not always had the best history in dealing with post-viral illnesses, recognising them early and giving people supports. I welcome Deputy Colm Burke's comments. We have seen some countries in the EU recognise long Covid and provide social supports in respect of it. France, Italy, Denmark and Sweden have all accepted that Covid is not going away and, therefore, we will have people with long Covid for many years to come, unfortunately.

I completely accept the idea that an all-of-government response is needed and that we have to decide as a society to support people. On the social protection issue in particular, however, we are often talking about fairly young people as regards this issue. They are people in their 30s and 40s with small children. They might be sick, not forever, but for two, three, four or five years until they get back on their feet and into a place where they can actually work. We do not want to see people with that kind of ambition and ability put into medical early retirement. There might be a better way of going about it.

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