Mr. Cormac Healy:

I will take that question. First, I would say to the Deputy that there has been engagement by Meat Industry Ireland in those particular protocols the Deputy mentioned that were developed in conjunction with ICTU, the Construction Industry Federation and IBEC.

The meat sector-specific guidance was developed in conjunction with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and the national outbreak control team. Further to correspondence from SIPTU, to which we responded, we indicated that while principally the matters of pay and conditions - because it had raised other issues - are dealt with not by us but by individual companies, we nevertheless were open to discussion.