Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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315. To ask the Minister for Health if he will provide a schedule of financial supports available to health care workers who suffer from long-Covid following being infected with the virus in the course of their duties. [58603/22]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform have provided for Special Leave with Pay (SLWP) for the recommended isolation period, for civil and public servants, including public health sector employees, nationally who contract Covid. SLWP provides for paid leave, including full pay, any fixed allowances payable as well as premium payments.

For certain employees who remain unfit to attend the workplace and are suffering from long-Covid, a temporary scheme, specific to the public health service has been introduced to provide for Paid Leave for Public Health Service Employees unfit for work post Covid infection.

The HSE have issued the full details of the Scheme to all public health service employers by circular, and employees who meet the criteria for eligibility for the Scheme will have transferred to the new Scheme retrospectively from 1st July 2022.

For those who do not meet the criteria of the temporary Scheme, or who have been in receipt of SLWP but who remain unwell longer than the current recommended isolation period, the provisions of the Public Service Sick Leave Scheme may be utilised.