Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

One of the areas where the State may be compelled to issue an apology in the future relates to decisions taken during the Covid crisis, in particular, the decisions to prioritise private profit over public health. I will raise the matter of a Covid inquiry, which the Taoiseach was reported as saying will be set up this year and for which the terms of reference are being worked on. Will those terms of reference include the issue of long Covid? Unfortunately, this will be a growing issue. Approximately 10% of all those who get Covid are then affected by long Covid. A recent medical paper suggested that 65 million people worldwide are now suffering from long Covid. It is devastating for some of those people, with incredible levels of fatigue, brain fog, heart problems and all sorts of quite horrendous symptoms. Unless the world begins to act quite differently, this has the potential to be a mass, disabling event. Will long Covid be included in the terms of reference for the Covid inquiry?

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