Mr. Paddy Kavanagh:

I will start by making a brief comment on the TWSS. We all know that this virus was visited upon us at the start of the year, some would say very quickly and others would say we were not sufficiently prepared when it happened because we did not know it was coming. The subsidy scheme brought in at the start of the pandemic was an initial reaction to what the country was faced with. Ten months later, there is no excuse for not having a system that is properly tailored towards workers. To harp on again about the German system or even the Danish system, where one must sit down with the workers’ representatives to agree the scheme, the beauty of the German scheme is that the company pays the workers for the work they do and the state subsidises the hours they lose. While workers could get more, it will not cost the State any more. That is the first point.

We have a few health and safety concerns. We will admit there has been an increase in both the quantity and quality of PPE in recent times. It was not available at the start and that was a concern. However, there are concerns about workflows, workloads and where people in the airports and production facilities go in regard to interaction with luggage, customers, etc. Some places still do not have Covid-19 officers or the required number of safety representatives. That should be examined because if we cannot increase the required number of safety representatives or Covid-19 officers in the current pandemic, when will we get health and safety right?

We would like to see more regular meetings of health and safety committees at which workers could raise those concerns. Our concerns are many. We have full-time staff working beside subcontractors or outside companies which are coming in to assist and there is not the same number of procedures in place. Our guys are working beside those workers and they can see that. We are managing to a better extent the direct workers but there are concerns about contractors and those who are walking in. Some smaller airports do not have any direct staff and maintenance staff are all being brought in from outside. That has to be looked at also.