Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing time with Deputy Carroll MacNeill. I welcome the witnesses. I will bring the conversation forward and dwell less on history and more on the issues relating to the immediate outbreak in the counties concerned, particularly my county. Have the protocols been observed strictly and in accordance with the rules in the past fortnight or three weeks in respect of County Kildare and the meat processing plants there? Did the HSA carry out unannounced inspections at the plants in question? I am conscious of the need not to identify or get involved in a blame game; I am not doing that. There are a number of cases. Did the HSA carry out announced or unannounced inspections of the plants concerned in the past three or four weeks which would have bearing on it?

Having regard to the submissions made during the earlier session, when considerable criticism was levelled at a number of the bodies represented here, are our guests acutely aware of the urgent necessity to respond in the strictest possible terms to the possibility of another outbreak. In other words, to what extent is action being taken at the first sign or suspicion of an outbreak?

With regard to notification, the HSA has been accused of obstructing progress in the identification of the need for inspection and in the inspection rate. On the issue of languages and foreign workers, will the HSA at whatever level, indicate the extent to which foreign-based workers were involved at the locations concerned at this time? I understand they are all naturalised citizens or living in the immediate area, and they have their own homes to go to. If there are exceptions to those rules we need to know to what extent this has been identified and what action has been taken to prevent a potential outbreak in future.