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Doubt has been cast over who is in charge of making sure HSE protocol is followed in meat factories after Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed disputed a statement made by Meat Industry Ireland (MII) that Department staff are overseeing the “verification” of protocol in plants.
Speaking on the Irish Farmers Journal podcast, Minister Creed stated: “The only legal function that we have is around food safety and animal welfare.
“We don’t have a statutory role in respect of health and welfare of [factory] workers.”
Hundreds of Department staff, including vets, work in factories but the Irish Farmers Journal understands that their representative bodies have not been informed their members are expected to oversee or verify HSE protocol.
The Irish Farmers Journal also understands that in many instances, factory staff have been assigned to conduct protocol measures, including temperature-checking of colleagues in factories.
Inspections of meat plants have been carried out by the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) this week on foot of complaints.
Meat factories have faced widespread scrutiny as the number of workers testing positive for the virus rose to 823, with factory clusters rising to 16.
There has also been extensive condemnation after Independent TD Denis Naughten received information from Minister for Health Simon Harris, that management in meat factories were receiving individual COVID-19 results before their employees.
Minister Harris insisted that this was only in the case where a meat plant would need to be temporarily closed due to an extreme outbreak.
However, this was disputed by Department of Health CEO Dr Tony Holohan who stated: “Employers shouldn’t get the results before employees.”
MII has said that updated HSE guidance for meat factories which include regular temperature testing and the deployment of multilingual signs are being followed.
Hotel facility
Workers who test positive for COVID-19 or show symptoms are also advised to stay home and self-isolate or use the Government’s Citywest hotel facility free of charge.
A special sitting of the Oireachtas business committee is to question the Ministers for Health, Agriculture and Business on meat plants and COVID-19 on Thursday 21 May.
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