Covid-19: Nine unannounced inspections of meat plants undertaken by HSA since March

Nine unannounced inspections of meat plants have been carried out by the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) since lockdown measures were first eased in May.

At a meeting of the Oireachtas Covid-19 committee on Thursday, HSA chief executive Dr Sharon McGuinness told Sinn Féin's David Cullinane that the watchdog has performed 39 inspections of meat plants since that point in relation to the return to work safely protocol for the coronavirus pandemic, with 30 of them announced.

Unannounced inspections have been under way since the end of June. The HSA has conducted 3,820 inspections or investigations overall since the commencement of the State’s reopening following the coronavirus lockdown, of which 2,844 addressed Covid-19 measures.

In response to questions from Fine Gael TD Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, Dr McGuinness outlined that while many inspections are announced, the notice period given is relatively short – for a visit that takes place in the morning, notice is usually given the previous evening. She said that for an afternoon visit to a plant, contact would be made just before lunch "to say we were on our way".

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The figures supplied suggest that a little more than 1 per cent of inspections undertaken so far have been of meat plants. The HSA also confirmed that no improvement or prohibition notices, two of the enforcement measures open to the agency, had been served on any meat plants.

Level of compliance

Dr McGuinness said that "we have found through our inspections that the level of compliance with all the different protocols has been in line", which was echoed by Michael Sheahan, a senior official with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, who also gave evidence to the committee.

“In general, and based on the feedback from our staff who are in the slaughter plants every single day, there is no issue with lack of compliance with protocols. That is not the problem,” he said.

The HSA, which is responsible for workplace safety, is the main agency for monitoring compliance with the return to work safely protocol drawn up by the Government. Due to the workload involved, other Government agencies are also involved in monitoring this compliance, and therefore the total number of inspections of meat plants would be higher. The Department of Agriculture told the committee it has conducted 91 inspections of meat plants so far, in addition to its permanent presence in 49 slaughterhouses.

The conditions of workers in the meat sector and the potential for meat processing plants to spread Covid-19 have been the subject of intense scrutiny since outbreaks in four such plants in the midlands contributed to the current partial lockdown of three counties – Kildare, Laois and Offaly.

Hot-bedding

Cormac Healy, senior director of Meat Industry Ireland, told the committee that 20 per cent of the industry's workforce are on work permits. Asked about the practice of so-called hot-bedding, where workers working different shift patterns share a bed, he said it "should not be tolerated". He said that while there is a provision that employers source accommodation for work permit holders, there is no obligation on the worker to use it. He said that "the industry is not involved in mass provision of accommodation".

Fianna Fáil TD for Kildare North James Lawless raised the issue of a "lacuna" in the law which means that meat plant owners and other employers do not have to report cases of Covid-19 to the HSA. Dr McGuinness said that notwithstanding this, the HSA is "aware of where the outbreaks are occurring and are engaging with them as they happen".

Mr Lawless said that the original intent of the legislation governing workplace reporting of injuries was that illnesses should be covered, and that this had been changed by the previous government with regard to infectious diseases. Mr Lawless questioned whether the previous administration had been acting beyond its legal authority in doing so.

Mr Sheahan, the Department of Agriculture deputy chief veterinary officer, said none of his officers had refused to turn up to work during the pandemic, but admitted there had been "significant concern" among his 250 staff "who have been on the front line since the start". He told Labour TD for Fingal Duncan Smith that in his 30 years at the department he had faced many crises, from foot and mouth to BSE. "This is the single biggest challenge, however, we have ever faced, in my opinion," he said.