Mr. David Hughes:

The Deputy is correct in what she is saying as there is an obligation on the State to protect workers, irrespective of anything else that it is doing in public health. It is an important feature. Reporting is not necessarily just about the individual cases but is about surveillance. We know, for example, that in the last week the epidemiology reports are indicating that although most of the economy is closed, there were 19 outbreaks in workplaces. If one considers hospitals, healthcare facilities and residential facilities, there were 16 outbreaks. That is where the health service is fully operational and where workplaces are practically closed. We have an issue with clusters in workplaces and the surveillance that a requirement to report would give would assist the public health authorities, but as importantly from the point of view of workers, would demonstrate that this State is taking seriously its responsibilities to protect workers in their workplace. The arguments that have been made, it seems to me, are that workers must wait. That is a familiar argument. Workers cannot wait as their health, safety, welfare and their very lives are at risk when the economy opens up if there is not a proper reporting mechanism to deal with outbreaks in workplaces.

The other argument that has been suggested is that the information is already available. Perhaps it is already available but there is no requirement to drill down into that information. For example, we can say that it is in particular sectors but we cannot get to the meat, and more particularly the workers or their representatives do not find out the actual locations unless it becomes public knowledge. The information being available and a requirement on the State to act are not the same thing and in this case they definitely are not.

A further argument that is being made is that, essentially, a worker has to prove beyond all reasonable doubt that they got it in their workplace. That is surely too high a standard in a pandemic. The number of healthcare workers who have currently contracted the disease is 28,038, as reported yesterday. The majority of them were not reported to the Health and Safety Authority because there was no requirement to do so until the 24 November 2020, when the European directive became enforceable in every country.

We have a problem here and it is putting our heads in the sand to say that taking the requirement to report disease in 2016 was appropriate when we are now in a pandemic. This amendment would put this requirement back there and it should be back there. I thank the committee.