Ms Michele Rohan:

Covid hit in March 2020. The only directive we, as supervisors, got at the time was to continue the payroll. We were in a crisis situation and the direction we got was to ensure that the people were paid, which was fine.

As regards returning to work or having people working in various organisations, including Tidy Towns, community centres and all those sorts of thing, we could not at the time get any direction from the Department as to whether or not our people should be at work or could return to work. Particularly during the second lockdown, which was during the summer, grass was growing everywhere and villages were covered in weeds. The members themselves were going out to cut them because we could not get a "Yes" or a "No" from the Department as to whether it was an essential service. Because we are all limited companies, we were told to check with our insurance companies. The insurance companies threw it back at us. Was it an essential service? Were we in level 5? If we were in level 5, was grass cutting an essential service? Other organisations were out on the ground and we were being asked why we were not out there too. We were not out there because nobody could tell us whether we were insured. We could not take that risk because we were responsible for the welfare of those people and for the board of management.

I was in the office every day on my own. I had no issue continuing the paperwork. I caught up on all the paperwork on which I had been behind. I felt I was not doing my bit when I saw what the other organisations were doing. The likes of Tús and RSS were able to go out because they are under the likes of the Galway Rural Development, GRD, or partnerships. They had another level to which they could go. I had to go and look for templates for all the risk assessments that came with the return to work. Only because we have a national and regional network of supervisors that we set up ourselves was I able to put the question out there and ask what we are doing about this and that. Some CE supervisors were working, for example, in Údarás na Gaeltachta or GRD and they could tell me what templates they had. Only through that and the organisation we did ourselves were we able to protect ourselves, our participants and the board of management, which expects us to know what to do. I must say it was the worst and most stressful situation I have ever experienced because I did not have a clue what I was doing, and I was not the only one. That is in answer to the question about Covid.