Mr. Greg Ennis:

If I can deal with the four questions, first - and without putting words in the Deputy's mouth - what is the reason for the numbers in the three lockdown counties and why are they not happening anywhere else? The numbers are stark. In total, we are looking at just under 300 cases across four employments in the three counties to which the Deputy refers. It is not dissimilar to what happened in other plants in other areas that are not locked down where 25% of the workforce had confirmed cases of Covid-19 in some instances. That happened in Cork, Tipperary and other places so we have had five clusters in meat plants with outbreaks of more than 100 confirmed cases. I do not know why it is happening there.

The reason for this has as much to do with what is happening outside of the workplace as with what is happening in it. Some employers have worked well with us. Unfortunately, many workers share accommodation and rooms, which has to do with the Deputy's question on hot bedding, and are being forced to carpool because they are paid a pittance.

The Deputy's next question was on multilingual signage. It has improved according to our information, albeit not to the extent where I would be satisfied. The Deputy might say that I would say that anyway. To be realistic, though, if there are seven or eight different languages in an employment, it would not cost too much to get signs transposed into those mother tongues. The situation is not ideal. It has improved, but not to the extent required.

The unannounced inspections I have heard of in the past six weeks number in the single digits. There are many more announced inspections. As far as I am concerned, there should be no further announced inspections. Everything should be unannounced.

I used the term "hot bedding" in my opening remarks. It is a common practice. Earlier this year, we saw fruit pickers being flown in from Romania at the height of the pandemic. Hot bedding is an issue in that sector. I am not saying that it is rampant in the meat industry, but it definitely happens in a number of large towns, particularly one or two towns in the three lockdown counties.