Mr. Philip Carroll:

I find that extraordinary. First of all, the Deputy is conflating a number of issues here.

First of all, we have an industry that, as the Deputy says, produces and exports volumes of meat products of the order of €4 billion or thereabouts. We compete in an exceptionally difficult environment right across the globe. We meet all of the standards that are required in dealing with our workforce. We are subject to Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, inspections on all of the plants.

Regarding those inspections, there is also a discussion with representatives of unions, where they exist in plants, and worker representatives in other plants. It is similarly the case with the HSA. When it does an inspection in meat plants, its representatives also speak to workers and that is done independently of plant management.

In creating some sort of artificial divide in what he has said, the Deputy has not produced any evidence. He is suggesting things that are simply not the case. There may well be another forum in which the Deputy believes it would be necessary to look at these matters, and that is entirely an issue for him. However, conflating issues concerning employment contracts and other issues here is not a realistic approach to trying to establish precisely why we have had these large outbreaks. We have them, by the way, only in six or seven plants.