Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

Good.

A part of that would be having clarity that an important part of this budget should be resourcing the HSA properly. I would also say we should be empowering the trade union movement to carry out inspections, as happens in some countries. Therefore, it is a bit disconcerting that we do not have figures for how many inspectors we will get but I welcome getting that information.

On the role of the HSA, something I have asked about previously and confirmed is that the HSA does not do unannounced inspections on whether employers are unnecessarily bringing people into work. If people watch the NPHET press conferences that are on twice a week, they will often hear a message that if people can work from home they should do so. The problem in many cases, however, is that it is all very well for an ordinary worker to think he or she should do the responsible thing and work from home but if his or her employer says that during this level 5 lockdown as opposed to during the last lockdown, employees must come into work, then employees have no choice but to do it. Quite a number of workers have approached me saying they feel they are being pressured to come into work in a situation in which they do not feel it is essential for them to come in. NPHET has made this point as well. The Google location activity indicators would suggest that significantly more people are travelling into work during this level 5 lockdown than during the last lockdown. Could this be revisited to make sure people are not being forced to make unnecessary journeys into work and potentially putting themselves and their communities at risk?