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 morning, 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.
On Thursday afternoon the Labour Court reccommended the current scheme be extended for a further six months.
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The Minister said she 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”.
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, particularly 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.”
[ Jennifer Carroll MacNeill in the spotlight as health controversies intensifyOpens in new window ]
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.
Ms Carroll MacNeill 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.
Labour Court ruling
On Thursday afternoon, the Labour Court recommended the current scheme be extended for a further six months.
Chairperson of the ICTU Group of Healthcare Unions and INMO Director of Industrial Relations, Albert Murphy, said unions are calling on the Government to classify Covid or long Covid as an occupational illness or injury, in line with other EU countries.
“This would remove a barrier identified by the Labour Court to resolving the issue for the small group of healthcare workers who remain affected by long Covid,” Mr Murphy said.
“Healthcare workers with long Covid went to work when everyone else was told to stay at home during Covid and are still suffering the consequences that come with a huge physical and mental cost.”
Kevin Figgis, head of SIPTU Health, added that unions “have written to the HSE today seeking confirmation that the current scheme will be extended until the end of 2025″.
