Dr. Sharon McGuinness:

We are all minded of worker protection and as I said earlier, that is the HSA's driving and primary goal. A reporting system of any sort will support that goal but it does not prevent us going ahead and making sure there are other systems in place to support and protect workers, particularly in relation to Covid-19. We inspect and provide advice, support and guidance directly to employers and employees. We have a workplace contact unit that is available to all employees if they have any concerns about their health and safety in the workplace. That is still our driver and that will continue whether we have two systems, one system or five systems. That will always be our ultimate driver.

On the wider context of that, we are looking at occupational illness in a general sense. We have been looking under our current strategy to have better recording and reporting because it is something that needs to be addressed in the wider context. The decision around the 2016 regulations was taken by our tripartite board, which is made up of employer, employee and other stakeholders and the board made a recommendation to the Minister in due course. We have done a lot of consultation, we will continue to do that consultation and whatever the outcome from the discussions here is, we will take that on board and implement it when and if necessary.