Written answers
Tuesday, 12 December 2023
Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection
Covid-19 Pandemic
Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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467. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection further to EU Commission Recommendation (EU) 2022/2337 of 28 November 2022 concerning the European schedule of occupational diseases if she has responded to the request set out in article 4 on Covid-19 caused by work in disease prevention, in health and social care and in domiciliary assistance, or in a pandemic context; if she will publish a copy of this response; if these provisions also pertain to those who have not recovered following a Covid-19 related illness; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [54657/23]
Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The European Commission made a non-binding recommendation on the recognition of COVID-19 as an occupational disease. The Commission did not make a recommendation in relation to long COVID. The decision regarding recognition of COVID-19 is a Member State competence. Recognition as an occupational disease confers different entitlements in different Member States, with employers paying the compensation in some countries and social insurance systems paying in others.
It is important to note that due to the regulations for the Occupational Injuries Benefit scheme, recognition of COVID-19 in Ireland would not encompass long COVID and would only apply to new claims for new cases of COVID-19. Therefore, it would not benefit those who contracted COVID-19 during the pandemic.
I recently published and laid a report before the Oireachtas entitled ‘Report on measures to include long COVID in the Occupational Injuries Benefit Regulations’. This report found that COVID-19 does not meet the criteria for recognition as an occupational illness under the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005.
Specifically, presumptions about workplace transmission would not be sustainable on a general basis in the current environment where infection rates are low. The statutory criteria for Occupational Injuries Benefit specify that the disease or injury was caused as a risk of the person’s occupation and is not a risk outside of that profession. Community transmission became dominant by the summer of 2020. Therefore, it has not been possible since then to establish with confidence a general assumption that the disease has been contracted through their occupation and not through community transmission.
My department continues to provide a suite of income supports to those who cannot work due to illness and disability, including those who have not recovered following a COVID-19 related illness. These comprise Illness Benefit, Disability Allowance, Invalidity Pension and Partial Capacity Benefit.
I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.
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