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

I am very happy to hear the Minister acknowledge that it is a high-risk workplace because when this issue was originally raised in the Dáil by my colleague, Deputy Paul Murphy, he was dismissed by the Government and was accused of trying to smear the work of meat plants. For months there were no inspections whatsoever at the factories and the virus was simply let rip. During the summer, when the virus was finally in decline, the Government turned a blind eye to the meat plants yet again by cutting back on testing and monitoring.

To this day the vast majority of meat factory workers have no entitlement to sick pay and many live in overcrowded accommodation provided by their employers in which they are a tinderbox for viruses. Those in the so-called tied accommodation are even denied basic tenants rights and access to the Residential Tenancies Board, RTB. There are still systemic problems which need to be addressed before another variant or another outbreak of the virus happens.

The Minister has tiptoed around the meat factories in refusing to tackle what is happening in the plants, his Department has consistently overlooked what was going on and serious questions have to be raised on the relationship between the Department and the beef barons.

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