Mr. Tom Parlon:

It is in both in our own standard operating procedure and in the national protocol that if workers displays symptoms on site, they have to be isolated and seek help, and their doctor must be called. An isolation facility must also exist for them. If a positive case transpires, the HSE moves in and will use their own protocol to check.

As I said in my opening address, we now will have a log of people. Certainly, there is a major attempt now on sites to keep different groups separate. They will have separate staggered breaks, lunchbreaks, arrival times and so on. So if there is an outbreak we hope to be able to confine it but that is entirely up to the HSE in terms of how it does that.

In terms of PPE, we do not want to compete with the HSE on that. The jury seems to be out still in terms of the use of face masks. The wearing of masks is recommended in crowded areas or where people are close. The protocol says, "in line with HSE advice". We know that both our own standard operating procedures or SOP and the national protocol are living documents and if some new direction comes out then it will be included. We are sourcing products. Some former sportswear people are now commercially manufacturing face masks. I am amazed by what has been achieved by people in this country and some of my own members have come up with standalone facilities for working on-site. When they were off for the last three or four weeks they spent time in their workshops creating stuff.

Earlier somebody asked me about smaller players. All of the safety advice and so on that we have is freely available on our website and the webinars are open freely to big and small players whether they are members or not. Likewise, on our LinkedIn page we have a massive lot of followers and a commercial page. If some Irish supplier comes along and says he or she is providing X, Y or Z then we invite him or her to put it up on our LinkedIn commercial page, which is very full. Certainly it will be our intention to buy locally and it is probably a hell of a lot easier to get supplies locally now.