The European Commission made a non-binding recommendation for each individual Member State on the recognition of COVID-19 as an occupational disease. The Commission did not make a recommendation in relation to long COVID.
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. A copy of the report can be found at: gov.ie - Report on the measures to include long COVID in the Occupational Injuries Benefit regulations – November 2023 (www.gov.ie).
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.
It is important to note that even if Ireland did recognise COVID-19 as an occupational disease, this would not encompass long COVID and would only apply to new claims for new cases of COVID-19. Thus, it would not benefit those who contracted COVID-19 during the pandemic.
The report suggests that the Temporary Scheme of Paid Leave for Public Health Service Employees is the appropriate channel through which a targeted sectoral support for healthcare workers who have not recovered from a COVID-19 infection should be considered.
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.
I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.
