Meat factories that can’t operate safely within public health guidelines shouldn’t be open, Sinn Fein has said.
The party’s health spokesperson, David Cullinane said enough hasn’t been done to prevent outbreaks and clusters of Covid-19 in meat plants.
His comments come after Fianna Fáil’s Minister of State and TD for Laois and Offaly Sean Fleming urged Carroll Cuisine in Tullamore to close this morning after some staff have tested positive for Covid-19.
Sinn Fein’s David Cullinane said: “I thought it was extraordinary on RTE that we had a junior minister call over the airwaves for one of these factories to be shut.
“I think we’re dealing here with meat factories that we know have been a hotbed for this virus for sometime.
“Of course it’s difficult to close any business but it’s far, far more difficult to close an entire county and to have other businesses that are unrelated to these outbreaks having to suffer and pay the price for that.
“So it gives me no comfort to call for any factory to either close or to remain closed.
“But the bottom line is this, it just has to be this way.
“If any factory is unable to operate safely and within the government workplace guidelines in an acceptable and safe way then they shouldn’t be open.
“We’re very clear.
"We’re not satisfied that the inspections are being carried out and we’re very clear that not enough was done to prevent outbreaks and to contain this virus.”
Mr Cullinane said the challenge for the government now was to “wrestle back control” to ensure there is no further spread of the deadly disease.
He said it was extraordinary that despite announced inspections in meat plants and other workplaces, they have yet to be informed what breaches were found.
He said: “What we have been asking for is rolling testing to be carried out in all of these factories for very rigorous and frequent on site unannounced inspections by the Health and Safety Authority.
“We still haven’t got any of the figures back yet on what was actually happening.
“It’s extraordinary to me that these outbreaks again took place in these centres and how long it took for these businesses to close and they close voluntarily so what are the authorities doing?
“We want to know that the inspections in meat plants are taking place, we want to know what’s coming out of those inspections.
“The last parliamentary question I got back from the HSA was that there were on average 220 workplace inspections being carried out on a weekly basis.
“Bear in mind they tell us that there’s 560 inspectors. So that’s one inspection in a workplace every two weeks per inspector.
“I don’t think that’s enough.
“Of those average of 220 I don’t know how many were in meat factories.
“I know there’s an average between 8 and 10 enforcement orders that are issued on foot of those inspections, again I don’t know how many of those were meat factories and what breaches were identified."
