Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I would like to put on the record our thanks to the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, for finally agreeing to meet with the Irish Thalidomide Association. They requested a meeting almost two years ago, when the Minister first took office. He agreed to the meeting, but it was cancelled. A number of my colleagues have put in requests for that meeting to be rescheduled. I welcome the confirmation that the meeting will now take place. I sincerely hope it takes place urgently because we are all fully aware of the distress, the sickness and the ill health this drug has caused to pregnant women who were dealing with morning sickness. I welcome this. I sincerely hope that measures can be put in place to support these women, because this drug should have been taken off the market in this country a long time before it was. The Leader might consider a debate on this House on the consequences of that drug.

I ask the Leader if she could bring the Minister for Health in here for a debate and discussion on long Covid. We are now, thankfully, moving into a sphere of living with Covid. The pandemic is not over, but it is certainly looking like we are moving into a phase of the pandemic where we will co-live with it. We will be careful but at the same time people will be able to get on with their lives. There are many people in this country who suffer the effects of long Covid and who have had their health very much impacted as a result of Covid. This is particularly the case in the effects of the first wave and the Delta wave. Measures need to be put in place. There has been talk of a strategy on long Covid. This problem will affect many of our citizens who have had and who still have long Covid. Some people who had Covid over a year ago still do not have their sense of smell and taste. I would like to know what the Minister's plans are to support and help these people, and to put proper medical resources and a strategy behind them to try to help them to return to full health.