Mr. Greg Ennis:

I will make it simple. The HSE would have carried out significant testing in a particular plant. It would have been aware of a strong presence of Covid. Up to 50% of a lamb line tested positive for Covid but the beef line was still continuing. Workers from the beef line were tested. When one blows a whistle in a plant, there are many carcasses - I am sorry to be so graphic - lying about. It is valuable product as far as the employers would see it. Those workers were tested and even though they were in a workplace where there was a significant number of confirmed cases of Covid, they went back in without having first got the results of their tests. As I said, they had to wait four to five days to process that product. They then found out belatedly that they have tested positive for Covid. That is how bad it has been.

Even today, I believe some workers in meat plants in Kildare have not got their results from last week. The testing is a real issue.