Dr. Orlaigh Quinn:

I thank Deputy Nash. To clarify, as we said earlier, we have negotiated with colleagues in the Departments of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and Health. We have 200 environmental health officers assigned to work on Covid-19 under the guidance of the HSA. There are 250 agriculture inspectors from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. Also aligned with them are our 50 workplace relations commission inspectors. That gives us in the region of 500 inspectors. We have also said that if further inspectorate resources are required we will look at that again. Each of the inspectors will be trained by the HSA and will use the same standard approach. We will operate on that basis.

Up to now, the HSA has done, from my understanding based on the last figures I received, something like 1,100 inspections. Of those, about 800 were specifically related to Covid-19. My understanding is that it is very satisfied with the level of compliance to date. It has worked very much on the engagement side, on training and on all of the supports put in place to make sure that employers can work.

It is also developing very specific guidance. As the Deputy knows, part of the Return to Work Safely Protocol is having a worker representative. It has been working very specifically on training for that person.