Mr. Greg Ennis:

As I said, I wrote to the Minister on this back in April or mid-May, which seems like a long time ago now. This week we handed the SIPTU charter to Meat Industry Ireland, the purpose of which is the safety of workers, their families and the wider community, the continuity of production, as we do need a meat processing business for this essential foodstuff, but more importantly the terms and conditions reflecting the essentiality of the sector. We put in preventative and corrective measures within the charter.

I believe we absolutely need to look at the meat processing industry from every angle. As I outlined previously, we need all of the stakeholders to be involved but we definitely need to look at the terms and conditions of workers within that industry. It is not good enough to cheerlead, call it an essential service and pay people a pittance for very labour-intensive and sometimes very challenging work in meat plants.

This has shone a light on the meat industry. When a crack opens up the light comes in and this has been the crack in the meat industry. It is about time that this industry was put under the microscope. There is nothing wrong with an employer making profits once they are generated through workers that are on reasonable terms and conditions. That is the trade-off and at the moment that is not happening. I would welcome a task force and I would love if this committee recommended it. There must be a worker's voice on it, as there is all over Europe.