Outbreaks of Covid-19 in Meat Processing Plants: Statements Dail Éireann — 2020-05-21 ============================================================ Michael Creed (FG), Cork North-West I believe my colleague has confirmed that the HSA has a statutory role independent of us in that it inspects meat plants. That is the case. What I said, I stand over. The Deputy's assertion is based on some logic which escapes me, to the effect that in some way it is beneficial for management to ensure the inefficiency of their processing operation by facilitating the contraction of Covid-19 by their workforce. That surely is self-evidently not in the interest of management, the owners or the workers. What I have clearly stated all along is that keeping food supply chains working through these essential workers, while important, is secondary to the welfare of these workers. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2020-05-21/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:48:18+00:00 Sitting date: 2020-05-21