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

The difficulty is there are quite a number of contradictions here. If we look to other EU countries, every other EU country has recognised Covid as an occupational illness except Ireland and Greece. The Department of Health and the HSE have recognised long Covid for anyone who was infected up to 15 November 2021, which is a full year and three months after the threshold the Minister of State has just spoken of. At the moment, there are 143 healthcare staff who have been in receipt of payments for in excess of 28 months, recognising long Covid as an illness within the health service. The difficulty for anyone in the health service who contracted Covid since 15 November 2021, and all other front-line healthcare workers, is that their long Covid illness is not being recognised. We are treating employees very differently depending on where they were doing their front-line work.

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