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

Major problems have been exposed in the meat processing industry by the Covid-19 crisis. Under the watch of his Department there have been a total of 108 outbreaks with more than 3,000 cases in meat factories themselves. Some 50 workers were hospitalised and 12 required care in intensive care units. SIPTU estimates that one in four meat workers got Covid-19 and that in turn seeded thousands of cases in the community. That was evidenced by the high level of community transmission in counties and regions where there were numerous meat plants, counties such as Monaghan, Laois and Kildare, where we saw a spike in the level of what they called community transmission, but one has to ask how did the virus get into the community at that high level?

The workers are not to blame. The conditions in which they work and live are the problem. I ask the Minister again if he will call for an investigation into the Covid-19 crisis inside the meat plants.

See this speech in context