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

I thank the Minister for the answer. Will he clarify if all 200 officers who are being allocated by the Department of Health will be engaged in on-site field inspections, and if not, how many will? That is crucial. It was reported in the Irish Examiner on 19 May that the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation had assured people that the HSA was getting additional inspectors from the WRC to inspect workplaces. I do not know if that is still the case or the plan. I have seen internal emails, which show that the management of the WRC is not planning to redeploy any site inspectors to the HSA. Due to Covid-19, it has suspended all on-site inspections for its regular work and is instead phoning and emailing employers about employment disputes. I do not know if the Government is counting on that but it is certainly saying internally that it is not doing that.

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