Ms Patricia King:

That question is really relevant. Order should be put on this matter and the Health and Safety Authority, HSA, should be to the forefront on it. It should sit on this issue until it is deal with. It should be to the fore. All employers should be working on the basis that the knock can come on the door at any time of the day or night. That is not the case at the moment. This business of inspections by arrangement is nonsense when one is trying to deal with something.

Furthermore, the national protocol on a safe return to work that was agreed provides for a worker-based infrastructure. Why is that important? It would mean that all of the people on the floor would have a representative who would interact with an identified management representative under the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 and share all the difficulties that arise out of Covid. In my opinion, the meat factories have ignored this provision. The Health Protection Surveillance Centre, HPSC, has issued instructions to the meat factories as to the protocols they should follow. These are the same as the national protocol. They are all about what should happen in canteens, toilets and so on. These factories should not be inspected by arrangement. They should be inspected daily or weekly. The HSA should liaise with workers and employers. I have asked the HSA and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine whether they were carrying out such inspections but the answers I got did not inspire great confidence. Those things need to start happening immediately. It is very important these things be done immediately.