A special scheme for public health workers impacted by Long Covid that has been in place since 2022 will be shut at the end of June this year, Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill has confirmed.
The scheme was put in place on a temporary basis in July 2022 for employees of the HSE and Section 38 bodies. A total of 166 people suffering from Long Covid have received benefits under the scheme.
It was initially scheduled to last for 12 months but there have been several extensions to the end date, the last being a 12-month extension granted at the end of June 2024.
Ms Carroll MacNeill has now said the scheme will definitively conclude at the end of June 2025, citing “very clear” advice from the Department of Public Expenditure.
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Only staff working in Covid-19 exposed healthcare environments were eligible. Under the special scheme they have been receiving benefits closer to their basic pay than they would have been under the public service sick-leave scheme, which reduces the benefits to the level of half pay after three months.
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In a reply to parliamentary questions from two TDs, John McGuinness of Fianna Fáil and Marie Sherlock of the Labour Party, Ms Carroll MacNeill disclosed that 166 employees were currently in receipt of the special scheme. She said the same number of people had been in receipt of the Special Leave with Pay scheme that operated during the pandemic.
“Combined, these schemes have provided this cohort with up to five years’ support in total to date,” she said.
She added that occupational health physicians who had reviewed all 166 employees had determined that almost all of them had an expectation of returning to the workplace in due course.
“Only a very limited number of employees (less than 10) have been recommended to explore ill-health retirement,” she said.
