Ms Patricia King:

He or she can go to the health and safety representative and both can make contact with the HSA. That is all reactive. The protocol also states that we need to have a proactive approach.

One of the ways of being proactive is to have boots on the ground and to go out checking so that employers know this will be checked. The second point is that something like on-the-spot fines, which is what we are suggesting the committee should consider, brings with it an alertness that brings a deterrent value. From that point of view, that also will boost and bolster. When those things are in operation, workers become confident that their place of work will be kept safe. In the first instance, ICTU put forward the proposals on the protocol. The objective of that was to gain the confidence of workers that going back to work can be safe.

Finally, a feature of this pandemic across the labour market is that the lowest paid workers are much more exposed. They are the people in the essential services, aside from the health service. I am leaving aside the health service for obvious reasons because there is a combination of pay grades, etc., delivering that service. This is a global feature. This is the same in Australia, in America and in Ireland. If one sets the health service aside, these are the same people who do not have a significant representative infrastructure, who are not recognised and who suffer, and have for years, lots of resistance to issues they would raise within the workplace. We are seeing some of that in the meat factories. We saw an incident today where tests were not even given to the individuals who should have had them. Their individuality was not even being respected. From that point of view, this should bring about, as I think Deputy O'Reilly suggests in her question, some form of major reform. I hope this House helps us to bring forward legislation that, once and for all, will respect worker representation and their rights.