Mr. Michael Sheahan:

I thank the Deputy for his words of appreciation for our staff. As I indicated, our 250 staff have been on the front line since the start of this.

Many of our veterinary staff have considerable skills and although they are not trained health and safety inspectors, as such, they have skills that are transferable in assessing whether a plant is doing all it should with respect to protocols. Their "day job" is the assessment of whether a plant is meeting criteria in other types of protocol, so they have a reasonably transferable set of skills. We undertook some training in what was required relating to health and safety. If we have concerns as a result of inspections and we are not satisfied about something, we refer those to the Health and Safety Authority, which ultimately has the statutory power to follow up.