Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity)
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I will just say that John was a husband and father of three children. There have been several fires across the site since that fatal accident. Four have resulted in evacuations. Many workers at the site will say that health and safety improvements and investment are going on but they are not the expensive fixes. They are the smaller jobs rather than the more expensive fixes. For example, I have reports of leaks in a section of roof there. There are leak catchers. Below the leaks in the roof, separated from the leak in the roof by the leak catchers, there is high voltage machinery. Many workers will report that the air quality is not of the highest standard. There is no mandatory mask-wearing in the plant. Many of the workers are members of unions, and of one union in particular, but in practice, there is not union recognition. There is a chill factor where people do not kick up too much about the health and safety issues because the investment could move to Poland.

I am not going to ask Ms Byron specific questions about that plant, although it is a plant that I think the HSA would be very familiar with, but I will ask her two general questions. How many unannounced inspections did the HSA do in the last year that it recorded figures for? Unannounced inspections have a certain advantage over announced ones, for obvious reasons, including spot checks, and I would like to see more of them.

Statistics internationally seem to indicate strongly that there is a lower rate of injury in unionised workplaces than in non-unionised workplaces. The lower rate can be as high as 24%, which I saw in a survey done by academics in Britain. It was some time back, but 24% is quite a figure. The reason seems to be obvious. Where there is a union organisation, particularly a strong union organisation, there is less of a fear factor. People can report a concern about health and safety without a fear that they will be in some way punished for having spoken up and pointed it out. Will Ms Byron comment on whether the indications from the HSA investigations and so on would back up the idea that, where there is worker and union organisation, there is less of a fear factor and more of a tendency to report and have a safe workplace?