Dr. Lorraine Doherty:

Deputy Gino Kenny will be aware that there have been a lot of outbreaks associated with both meat plants and other industries, such as the construction industry and the food industry. We recognised this quite early on last year and we established a national standing oversight committee to work with the industry and the HSE in regard to these outbreaks. A number of approaches were taken to developing new communications materials and new guidance for the sector. Alongside that, we have an active surveillance programme for infections across all of these sectors. Each of our public health departments plays a key role in working with the individual premises when they have cases, in terms of doing a public health risk assessment, determining the need for any additional control measures, following up of contacts, appropriate isolation of cases and, most importantly, constant reinforcement of the prevention messages that need to be applied in the workplace quite rigorously, and that message has to be consistently reiterated and communicated to staff and management in these facilities.