John McGahon (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

A debate that has taken place in other parliaments around the world, most notably in the United Kingdom in the Scottish Parliament and in the French Parliament, is the concept of and debates around long Covid. That is what I would like to ask for today. At some stage in the next couple of months it would be very useful to have the Minister for Health in here for a debate on long Covid. It is a totally new entity that we do and do not know much about. I would like to hear what the Government has to say using the best knowledge, the best science and best data that is available to the top health professionals in this country on what type of a strategy it should implement and what our views around long Covid are. It is difficult to define it and I am not asking for that. However, I would like to know what we are putting in place to deal with cases of long Covid. I know we can all come in here and give anecdotal evidence and different bits and pieces, but I would love to know the actual data in the HSE and our hospital systems in terms of long Covid, as well as what plans and what we are trying to put in place as a Government and as a country to deal with long Covid as it continues on. That would just be a very useful debate to have.

We have had so many good debates over the past two years about the whole aspect of Covid, and this is the next stage of the pandemic and of the world that we find ourselves in. We are very much back to normal as a country, and that is great. This is what living what Covid is and it is exactly what it should be. However, I would love to have a greater insight and a greater debate as to what long Covid looks like and what the Government and HSE view long Covid as. If we could schedule that at some time in the near future, it would be a useful debate for all of us.