Mr. Eddie Wilson:

It could, potentially, have been averted if they had come to us before the decision. We had that well signalled, in that if they had adopted the traffic light system, as initially put forward by the European Council of Ministers, which was the freedom of movement for green and amber countries. We made our stance absolutely clear to this committee and the Special Committee on Covid-19 Response. We wrote to the Minister on that basis on several occasions and yet we had no engagement whatsoever.

Honestly, I find it extraordinary to this day. Imagine that a factory of that size owned by Pfizer or Johnson & Johnson in Cork closed down and the Minister for Health or the Minister with responsibility for industry and commerce did not contact the company. We could have at least explored the options but we did not get that opportunity.