Ms Cori Crider:

I thank the Deputy for his question. I am very happy to clarify. It is important to explain to the best of my understanding what the investigation did and did not cover. My understanding is basically that just as we were about to meet with the Tánaiste in January, somebody asked the HSA whether it was looking into the question of Covid safety at the outsourcing offices. It was, therefore, only looking at the question of Covid safety, compliance with Ireland's Covid safety protocols and whether people should be working from home. It did not address any of what we believe are workplace safety issues around mental health. None of that was within scope.

Nonetheless, we engaged with the process and said that we had a bunch of people. We basically just wrote to the entity and said that we had a number of people who were willing to engage. We did not hear anything back about the investigation into Covid. I could not honestly say to the Deputy what the HSA did other than that it apparently looked into it and said that from a Covid standpoint, what was happening in the office was, to its mind, acceptable. That does not really answer the question about who should have to come in and who should be allowed to work from home. I suppose it is more to do with spacing and ventilation.

We were concerned that there did not seem to be an interest in speaking to people who had something to say, even about those issues that were squarely within its remit and what it said it was investigating. We are happy to send the committee the letter we sent to them, if it would be useful for its records and for it to see what we offered. Basically, we did not hear anything back.