Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Estimates are too far away. Many front-line workers are getting no support from their employers or through the occupational system. For some front-line healthcare workers, the money will run out next June so money coming at the end of the year is no good.

As I said, we are talking about, on a population basis, over 21,000 people who may be unfit to work due to long Covid. That figure excludes people who have relapsed after initial recovery and the many thousands more who are still in employment but are struggling with the illness. For many of these people, the sad fact is that trying to get care and treatment is nearly impossible. On average, they will wait six months to access a non-Covid clinic and if they happen to be unfortunate enough to be in Dublin, they will wait more than 12 months. At the same time, the Mater Hospital long Covid clinic, which treated neurological conditions such as brain fog associated with long Covid, closed at the end of last year, forcing patients to travel abroad to get treatment. When will we have a fully functional long Covid clinic network across the country?

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