Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Yes, and I am sharing time with Deputy Paul Murphy. We should acknowledge that tomorrow is May Day, International Workers' Day, and to that end we have taken an initiative in our group to have this building, Dublin City Hall and several other town halls across the country lit up in red in honour of our front-line workers and all other workers. Never has it been more unequivocally obvious the role that workers everywhere play in making the wheels turn around in society. We need to honour all front-line and other workers tomorrow, on May Day.

I welcome the written confirmation from the Minister for Health to Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett that the Health Protection Surveillance Centre will investigate an alleged outbreak of Covid-19 in Liffey Meats, which is located in the constituency of the Minister, Deputy Humphreys. That is welcome and it must be done urgently.

I cannot believe my ears listening to the answers being given to questions put by other Deputies and which I will put again. We are seven weeks into this crisis and she stated that people are working hard on a document, writing guidelines and working with the HSE to instruct employers how to implement Covid-19 regulations. That is not good enough. No agency in the State has power of enforcement and we are asking about it today. Will the Minister extend the remit of the HSA in order that its inspectors can step on a Bus Éireann bus to ensure a driver is protected, walk on to a building site and close it down if it is non-compliant or go into a non-essential workplace and close it if it is non-compliant? Will she answer that simple question about extending the remit?

My second question concerns the restrictions, if any, that have been placed on companies that seek to liquidate during this period. We are all aware of what happened with Debenhams and we saw the protests yesterday. I am sure we will see more of them. This morning, another company called Instant UpRight in Citywest attempted to move all its equipment and stock from that centre in order to transport it to Latvia. It wants to close the premises here in order to do that. Many companies are using this crisis as an opportunity to do things they would not normally get away with. Light-touch regulation in times of normal business is dangerous but in a pandemic, it could be fatal. The effects will be felt by workers who are about to lose their livelihoods. Will the Minister impose restrictions on companies so they will not be allowed to liquidate during the period of crisis? That can be done through extension of emergency powers or a statutory instrument?

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