Ms Edel McGinley:

On the work permits, we have been calling for sectoral work permits to allow for mobility for workers so if there are problems in their employment, be it exploitation or health and safety issues, they would have the freedom to move employer and not have to go through a whole process of reapplying for a work permit costing €1,000. It is quite a complex situation. Taking the agriculture industry as an example, which might include horticulture, such as mushroom and fruit picking, and meat processing, a sectoral work permit might allow a person to work throughout that sector. It would be the same with hospitality and with nursing homes, which I know the committee has examined in detail. This is about giving the employee the power to move should something be wrong. That is something we would be very happy to work on.

As regards HSA inspections, it is my understanding that inspections have now been carried out. There has been a suite of inspections, though I do not have the figure for them right now. However, when we talked to the workers, they told us they knew inspections was coming because there was a flurry of activity, marks were put on the floors and Covid signs were put up outside. This approach to announced inspections is a very flawed one, so we think that is problematic.

The Deputy asked about the guidelines from 15 May being issued in different languages. I have not seen them either. I do not know if workers were made aware that new guidelines were put in place. We told the people we were working with about them so I would say the answer to that is "No".