The Labour Court decision to extend a payment for healthcare workers with debilitating Long Covid until December 2025 is a welcome one, but more must be done, according to Social Democrats TD Liam Quaide, a former clinical psychologist with Long Covid services.
Deputy Quaide said:
“The government must recognise Long Covid as an occupational illness and provide for the long-term financial security of those healthcare workers who are affected.
“159 of these workers have been in receipt of their basic salary over the past 4-5 years – this is in recognition of the fact that they contracted the virus at the peak of
the pandemic in high-risk settings such as hospital wards, often without adequate PPE, when much of the rest of the workforce was protected by working from home directives.
“They paid an enormous price in the form of persistent symptoms such as debilitating post-exertional malaise – “this level of physical depletion can mean being
unable to lift a cup of tea after what most people would consider mild exertion, or having to return to bed after dropping a child to school.
“Long Covid can involve a range of symptoms that have a major impact on a person’s capacity to work or carry out basic tasks – treatments for Long Covid are extremely limited and for some, their symptoms have not improved.
“Despite the sacrifices these healthcare workers made on all of our behalf, they have faced the loss of their financial security each year since as their unions have had to battle it out with the Department of Health in the WRC and Labour Court.
“Being on a cliff-edge regarding their financial security each year as this pay arrangement was due to end has been a source of huge additional stress – these workers now
face the loss of their income a few days after Christmas this year.
“The government keeps emphasising that they have extended the pay arrangement several times, as if the healthcare workers should be grateful, instead of acknowledging that these workers’ sustained a serious workplace injury and should be compensated.
“Many were infected in early January 2021 following the so-called ‘meaningful Christmas’ in which restrictions on movement were crudely lifted by the government against public health expert advice.
“The government needs to provide these healthcare workers with an occupational illness scheme instead of dragging them through a process of having to beg for their financial security through the employment courts every year.”
June 27th, 2025