Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

A minute ago the Minister said the HSE. On 23 April the HSE responded to an email from me about Keelings which stated, "Further to your email of the 20/4/20 below, please be advised that the HSE environmental health service has no statutory role in the inspection of employee living accommodation or workplace health and safety."

Two weeks ago the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, and the Minister for Finance told me in the Dáil and in a written answer to a parliamentary question to contact the HSE. The HSE has now clearly stated it has no role in that. We send workers repeatedly to the HSA and the HSA has stated clearly and publicly that it does not have the powers to enforce the public health guidelines. We have raised this repeatedly over the course of a month and we have laid out the answer, which is for the Minister to sign a ministerial order or a statutory instrument to expand the powers of the HSA. I ask the Minister to answer a question clearly. How many on-site inspections of workplaces have taken place regarding coronavirus guidelines? How many on-site inspections have been carried out by the HSA, the HSE or the WRC? We need to stop workers being passed from Billy to Jack. They need somewhere to go when they have a problem and feel unsafe at work.

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