Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate that most of the factories are doing everything above board and correctly because I have spoken to many of them. We ourselves found out that they had stopped testing in some places. The report also reveals serious health and safety problems that were not Covid related. They contained repeated concerns about bandsaws without emergency stop buttons, open effluent treatment tanks with no edge protection and, in one case, asbestos roofing being visible throughout the site. These are health and safety issues that pose serious risks to the employees regardless of Covid-19. How were these issues allowed to go on? Are these factories not being inspected enough or was it a case of looking the other way because those who own them are friends or buddies of the Government? If the factories were not inspected for compliance with Covid-19 guidelines, would we not even know about these breaches of health and safety that are putting employees' welfare at risk? Finally, if Sinn Féin's request to make Covid-19 an identifiable workplace illness was adopted in the early days of the outbreak, would these issues have been spotted earlier?

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