Ms Patricia King:

I raised that last Friday at the meeting which was attended by the acting CMO and I found it somewhat incredible. Do people think this virus picked out this group of people so they would have a much higher rate of asymptomatic cases than other groups? I have my own view as to what the narrative here is but the narrative from the employer side was clearly that people were asymptomatic. Therefore, they did not know they had it and were in work even though they had it, and so on.

However, the point is that anyone in this room could be asymptomatic, we could have it and we could get tested. I support the viewpoint Mr. Ennis has given in his evidence. Once the virus has been detected there should be a quick-fire procedure that is implemented immediately. The Health and Safety Authority, HSA, should be to the front making sure that is implemented. That should include closure until the virus is eradicated and, at the very least, until all the workers have been tested and one knows the extent of the viral contraction. Members have seen, and it was public, that is not what happened in these meat plants. In fact, one company was instructing workers, albeit that nine people had been identified as positive and the rest of the workers were out for testing, which had been started, to come to work on Monday. It was late Monday evening or early Tuesday morning before the chief executive told workers. That company is owned by a private equity group and it was Tuesday morning before those workers were told it was going to close the place.

What does that indicate-----