Ms Orla Hegarty:

I am not an expert on occupational health. The advice I am giving is based on the information I have gathered from speaking to other people, including aerosol physicists and people who work in occupational health. That is the point I am making about it being a multidisciplinary issue. It is very important that all of these people are around the table for our risk assessment to balance everything. In the early stages last year, there were concerns about supplies and procurement. There were concerns about people buying up supplies which would not then be available to people in the hospitals. Those things have changed over the course of the year. Similarly, in making these kinds of decisions, there must be a balance between risk and availability. This may involve equipment, masks and the settings in which people are. We must also consider whether cheaper and easier mitigations are available.