Long Covid support scheme will end this month, Minister for Health confirms
Minister for Health
Jennifer Carroll MacNeill
has confirmed that the special scheme for healthcare workers with long
Covid
will end at the end of June.
Speaking in the Dáil on Thursday,
Ms Carroll MacNeill said
a temporary scheme was put in place in 2022 for healthcare workers who 'went beyond the call of duty, working in frontline environments'.
She said the scheme had been extended four times, most recently at the end of June 2024.
The Minister understood that approximately 159 employees 'are currently on the special scheme, the majority of whom have been supported on full pay for almost five years'.
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But, she added: 'I understand the
Department of Public Expenditure
has been clear, and was clear at the time, that this is the final extension that would be granted. As such, the special scheme will conclude on June 30th, 2025.'
The Minister was responding during Dáil health questions to
Labour
spokeswoman
Marie Sherlock
, who said that 166 employees in section 38 organisations, not directly employed by the State, and
HSE
staff are in receipt of the payment.
Ms Sherlock described the response to the workers as 'downright disrespectful and degrading to those who gave so much and risked so much at a time of such uncertainty and risk in this country'.
The Minister said that the role of healthcare works during the pandemic 'cannot be overstated, particular at the very early stage of it'.
'They went beyond the call of duty, working in front-line environments, treating Covid-19 positive patients, particularly in the early days when the control mechanisms were what they ultimately became and while the risk was extraordinarily great,' Ms Carroll MacNeill said.
'I reassure, to the extent that I can, those 159 employees who have been supported by the scheme for up to five years now that they will continue to be supported.'
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The public service sick leave scheme will apply for anyone who remains unable to return to work, she said.
'People's lives have been turned upside down by long Covid,' Ms Sherlock said, adding that this is not any 'ordinary type of illness' and was contracted in the workplace.
'The crucial point is that these workers have ultimately been told they are five years on and to get over it, but that is not their lived reality,' Ms Sherlock said.
She said the government gave 'false hope' last year that some sort of scheme would be put in place.
'Now those hopes have been dashed,' she said, appealing for the Minister to introduce a new scheme.
'It is shameful that people have had to go to the High Court and that unions have had to go to the Labour Court to try to get respect for those workers who contracted this illness in the workplace,' Ms Sherlock said.
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Ms Carroll MacNeill said she was aware that the findings of the Labour Court are still awaited. She stressed the terms of the sick leave scheme.
'Having been on full pay for five years, the healthcare workers may receive further full pay for three months, half pay for three months, temporary rehabilitative remuneration for 547 days of paid leave and the critical illness protocol that forms part of the sick leave, which provides additional support for up to three years,' she said.
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