Mr. Neil McGowan:

There was a cluster of infection in the fire station of the DAA and, thankfully, it has been brought under control. It is important to note that the fire service in the DAA does not only offer an expert aviation fire-fighting service but also runs a domestic ambulance that deals with the airport and a domestic fire tender. Those fire-fighters are not confined to the fire station under normal circumstances but are out and about around the airport, treating passengers, staff and so on who become ill.

There has been reasonably good engagement with the DAA on social distancing measures. The personal protective equipment, PPE, situation has certainly improved but we would like to see it improve further. I believe that the DAA was relatively slow, as were many employers, in issuing the PPE to staff members, particularly in the early stages of the pandemic. I believe they were relatively slow in introducing some of the physical infrastructure needed to protect the staff, such as Perspex screens for the airport search unit officers and so on.

There are still serious concerns around the break room facilities in the airport. There is still a relatively large number of staff on duty at any given time and the break room facilities are often not adequate. That is something that we continue to push with management of the airlines, airports and third party handlers because we must ensure that those break facilities are sufficient and additional space needs to be made available, if required.