Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing time, with five minutes for each the two other Deputies in the Chamber.

I thank the Minister. I have four questions for him. The first issue I want to raise is one to which I am returning, having raised it with the Minister some weeks ago. It relates to health and safety in food processing plants. I particularly want to raise the issue at Rosderra Meats. The company has plants in Edenderry and Roscrea and I have heard complaints from both. The worse scenario is in the factory in Roscrea, where there has been an outbreak of Covid-19. We want to keep the factories open and we have been very clear about this. There are approximately 350 workers on the factory floor there. Up to 140 of them were out sick throughout last week and 120 tested positive for the virus. I was informed - I checked the details again today - that the first case showed up over a month ago. Workers had to battle with management to get measures of any kind put in place, but they are still being denied two-metre distancing on the factory floor. There is congregating and no separation in the locker rooms or washrooms. The situation has improved in the context of PPE, which is now in place, but the virus was allowed to spread within that factory. That should not happen. No proper instructions were issued to workers, many of whom are not English-speaking or else English is not their first language. I want the Minister to address that. What is being done regarding inspections? What inspections are being carried out? Who are they being carried out by? What is being done to ensure that these industries keep going? It is important that we keep these jobs going, that workers are safe and that the food coming out is safe.

I want to ask the Minister about the beef sector. I have no wish to rehearse the situation. The Minister knows about the beef sector as well as I do. The aid package announced by the European Commission is literally a drop in the ocean. It works out at €8 per farmer across the EU. I welcome the fact that the Minister is front-loading direct payments - that is a welcome and positive move forward. However, we want the Minister to go back to the European Commission and get a better deal.

I want to ask the Minister about beef imports into the EU. That is still happening. Has the Minister spoken to other his counterparts? I have asked him to do this previously. I have asked him to speak to other agriculture ministers regarding this matter in order to bring about an alliance. We have plenty of beef in Europe. We have a vast amount of it within Ireland that we can get onto the supermarket shelves.

I want to ask the Minister about the fishing industry. There is a particular problem with restaurants being closed throughout continental Europe. There has been a drop-off in the level of Irish exports. We are proposing that quotas could be increased for herring in the north east to help fishermen in that area. Has the Minister any plans in that regard? The Minister alluded to getting wet counters open. There is demand for fish but people cannot get it in most supermarkets. I know the Minister is doing some work on this but he might give me an answer on that question as well. I will stop at that.

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