Edward Timmins
Ceist:67. Deputy Edward Timmins asked the Minister for Health if she will consider designating long-Covid as an occupational illness; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [17792/26]
Amharc ar fhreagraThursday, 5 March 2026
Ceisteanna (67)
Freagraí scríofa
The responsibility for the Occupational Injuries scheme lies with the Minister for Social Protection.
The Occupational Injuries Benefit Scheme is a group of benefits for insured workers if they are unfit for work either due to an accident arising out of and in the course of employment (at work or an accident while travelling, on a continuous journey, to or from work), or due to the contraction of a prescribed disease, due to the type of work they do and in the course of insurable employment. The two main payments under the scheme are Injury Benefit and Disablement Benefit.
In November 2023, the Minister for Social Protection published a report on the inclusion of long COVID in the Occupational Injuries Benefit Regulations. The report concluded that COVID-19 does not satisfy the statutory criteria for recognition as an occupational illness. These criteria specify that the disease or injury must be caused as a risk of the person’s occupation and must not a risk outside of that profession.
Specifically, the Report found that presumptions about workplace transmission would not be sustainable as it is not possible to establish with confidence that the disease has been contracted through a person’s occupation and not through community transmission. This is because community transmission had become dominant by Summer 2020.
The Department of Social Protections range of income supports, including Illness Benefit and Invalidity Pension, at the same or higher rates of payment as payments under the Occupational Injuries Benefit Scheme, are available to people who cannot work due to the effects of long COVID.