3847. Deputy Robert Troy asked the Minister for Health if she will provide an update on steps being taken by her Department to ensure healthcare professionals suffering from long covid can qualify for a critical illness payment; if she is aware that there are currently over 150 such employees of the HSE suffering from long covid who have been deemed ineligible for this payment recently, if she is aware of the fact that the Taoiseach has recently given commitments that maximum flexibility would be applied to the critical protocol in such cases. [63161/26]

The HSE have set up a working group to look at the cohort of staff that remain on Sick leave, who have applied for CIP. The working group are monitoring staff who get approved and following up on staff who have been refused the payment. They met each of the regions between 28th to 31st July to discuss the issues and to send the clear message that staff who remain on Sick Leave should be granted CIP. Before those meetings took place, there were 52 employees awaiting a decision on CIP. The working group will meet officials in the Department of Health again in September to provide a further update.