Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I have to start by congratulating IBEC on its submission. It is not often we get to read such a fine work of fiction at these committee meetings. It really does read like a different world. The world that the industry representatives live in is a world where the meat industry did everything right, at the right time and in the right way. It is a world where there were no issues to do with health and safety at the plants and where there was a perfect community with happy workers and empathetic employers. That is something of a mystery to us because all the other evidence we have heard, including from MRCI, ICTU and SIPTU, the workers union, shows us that those workers inhabit a different kind of world.

On 1 May and 2 May, TheGuardian, a reputable newspaper, did a series of articles on the outbreaks at Irish meat plants because it was quite stark. If the first case came to the attention of the meat plants on 17 March and the protocols were not imposed on meat plants until 19 May or 20 May, that gives a good six to eight weeks in which there was a spike in the outbreak of coronavirus in the meat plants. Up to 1,000 workers were infected. How do the industry representatives explain that? If everything was hunky-dory and done right there has to be some explanation. The representatives referred to the provision of masks and PPE, and social distancing. Yet, according to that newspaper report and what we hear from the horse's mouth, that is, from the migrant workers in the plants, they did not have PPE, there was no social distancing and they were not provided with gloves or masks. The industry representatives insist that was the case. Either it is fiction or the representatives are being totally defensive, like Lady Macbeth, of whom it was said "Methinks she doth protest too much". I think the latter is the case.

I assume IBEC believes in science. I assume IBEC employs people to research the industries it looks after. If so, can the witnesses tell me whether organisation has examined any of the science and research done across the world in respect of meat plants? Studies have been done by Johns Hopkins University and University of California, Davis as well as in the Netherlands and Germany. They are interesting but it is no mystery why meat plants are particularly susceptible. If IBEC had read those studies carried out by scientists they would understand clearly. Those familiar with the meat industry - I assume the meat industry representatives are - would know that low temperatures allow the virus to stay viable outside the body for longer, increasing the survival of the virus in the air. That increases the risk of infection in meat plants. Social and economic factors also apply. They are by nature exhausting, dangerous, labour-intensive jobs done primarily by underpaid migrant workers. Of necessity, many of them live in multigenerational homes or overcrowded housing environments. All of these create a perfect storm for the spread of the virus.

If the meat industry representatives have not read those studies, they must still be wondering why in hell this happened. They seem to think they did everything right, at the right time, all the time and everywhere, yet 1,000 workers across the industry became infected. Do the representatives ever ask themselves those questions and look for answers? It does not strike me that they are looking for answers. I believe they are trying to cover up. All the answers before the committee amount to denial, denial, denial instead of acknowledging that they had a problem, agreeing to look at where the problem came from and doing everything to address it; I am unsure whether they have done everything.

I have a couple of simple questions about what is being done. I understand that 20% of the workforce referred to earlier who come here on employment permits come in through agencies. Has MII spoken to those agencies about the accommodation in which those workers live? Has the organisation urged them, proposed to them, helped them or told them to do something to rectify the overcrowded multigenerational accommodation where they live? It is often in isolated rural areas. Can the MII representatives answer the question asked of them earlier? Do the majority of the 50 large-scale meat plants operate a sick pay scheme for these workers?