The Labour Court has recommended a final extension of the current special scheme for healthcare workers living with long Covid to run up to 31 December 2025, which the Government has now accepted.
At that point, anyone remaining on the scheme should transition to the Public Service Sick Leave Scheme, the court said.
Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill said she fully supports the decision and will now move to ensure the scheme is extended as per the Labour Court recommendation.
Earlier in the Dáil, the Minister said the special scheme would finish at the end of June.
Minister Carroll MacNeill said that the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform was clear in June 2024 that that was the final extension, with the scheme originally due to end at the end of this month.
The Government said 159 Health Service Executive and Section 38 organisation staff are currently on the scheme and in receipt of full pay.
The scheme was put in place in 2022.
Speaking before the Labour Court made its recommendation, Labour Party spokesperson on health Marie Sherlock said the response from Government so far had been "disrespectful and downright degrading to those who gave so much and risked so much at a time of such uncertainty and risk for this country".
Deputy Sherlock said that these patients contracted long Covid in the workplace, and said "the refusal to extend this scheme" had reflected "a shocking lack of empathy and indeed respect for these workers".
She said people had described the scheme as "a lifeline".
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Minister Carroll MacNeill said there was no intention not to be empathetic.
Ms Carroll MacNeill said that health workers had gone beyond the call of duty, particularly during the early days of the pandemic, when the protections were not as strong as they came to be and "when the risk was extraordinarily great".
She said a temporary scheme was put in place for 12 months in 2022, and believed there were 159 people in receipt of full pay for the past five years, and that this scheme had been updated four times.
