Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 20 May 2021
2. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if his Department plans to review its handling of the outbreaks of Covid-19 in the meat processing industry over the past year with a view to improving preventative measures in the future. [27379/21]
View answerI am asking this question on behalf of Deputy Paul Murphy. Does the Minister's Department plan to review its handling of the outbreaks of Covid-19 in the meat-processing industry over the past year with a view to improving preventive measures?
I thank Deputy Bríd Smith. In the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Department, in addition to carrying out its statutory role in meat plants regarding food safety, animal health and animal welfare, is providing to the HSE and Health and Safety Authority, HSA, any support required at local and national levels.
The Department continues to work closely with the relevant health authorities, which are responsible for the public health decisions made on the meat sector. If the public health authorities decided to review the experience of outbreaks in the sector, as suggested by the Deputy, the Department would certainly participate in such a review. It is important to note that the public health advice for meat-processing plants has evolved since the start of the pandemic as the understanding of the risk factors has increased.
Meat plants, particularly boning halls, can be noisy and humid workplaces and for food safety reasons the temperature is kept low through the recirculation of chilled air. The experience internationally has been that because of these factors, the Covid-19 virus can be transmitted relatively easily between workers in meat plants. To address these risk factors, detailed sector-specific public health guidelines were issued to meat processing plants early last summer, and implementation of these continues to be monitored.
As of 14 May 2021, the Department had completed 895 inspections, including unannounced inspections, on behalf of the Health and Safety Authority, HSA, in Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine-approved food premises. These inspections are ongoing and are in addition to the inspections carried out by the Health and Safety Authority itself, and in addition to the 49 premises where the Department has a permanent presence. The Department has also supported the HSE as required in the context of local outbreak teams.
The Department continues to participate on a standing committee established last August to, inter alia, oversee a programme of polymerase chain reaction, PCR, serial testing of workers at larger meat plants and each cycle of PCR testing consists of four week cycles of testing. The first cycle started on 14 September 2020 and a further eight cycles have been completed to date. More than 180,000 tests have been carried out from cycles one to eight, with a positivity rate of 0.77% overall. The ninth cycle of serial testing is currently under way.
Additional information not given on the floor of the House
The Department has led and encouraged the roll-out of rapid antigen detection testing, RADT, at meat processing plants, as a risk mitigation measure. It is also participating in a Science Foundation Ireland research project on the risk factors and enhanced measures for risk mitigation for Covid-19 in meat processing plants.
Major problems have been exposed in the meat processing industry by the Covid-19 crisis. Under the watch of his Department there have been a total of 108 outbreaks with more than 3,000 cases in meat factories themselves. Some 50 workers were hospitalised and 12 required care in intensive care units. SIPTU estimates that one in four meat workers got Covid-19 and that in turn seeded thousands of cases in the community. That was evidenced by the high level of community transmission in counties and regions where there were numerous meat plants, counties such as Monaghan, Laois and Kildare, where we saw a spike in the level of what they called community transmission, but one has to ask how did the virus get into the community at that high level?
The workers are not to blame. The conditions in which they work and live are the problem. I ask the Minister again if he will call for an investigation into the Covid-19 crisis inside the meat plants.
I thank Deputy Smith for her comments. As I said, meat plants are a high-risk environment because of the nature of the work and, in particular, in the boning halls with the recirculation of air and the fact the air has to stay chilled, which is something we have seen both nationally and internationally over the past period of time throughout the pandemic. That is why we have taken a very particular approach in the meat sector unlike any other sector. The meat sector, for example, is the only sector where the PCR serial testing is being undertaken and that is because of the fact that we recognise the particular risks that are there and we very much value the health and safety of the staff who work in these factories. That is why, at significant cost, it has been provided by the HSE. The most recent overall positivity rate in the PCR testing was 0.77%.
The other initiative I have led with my Department - I recognise the work of our chief inspector in laboratories, Dr. Donal Sammin, with the sector and the HSE - is antigen testing in meat factories, which has also been an important additional tool.
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.
There has been no tiptoeing whatsoever. Politically, that is what the Deputy and those on the left like to portray. The reality is very different. There has been a recognition at all times of the particular challenges in meat factories. As the Deputy is aware, as with all activity in the food sector, it was designated as essential work and an essential service throughout the pandemic. That brought real challenges to all working in the sector in being able to continue to keep everybody fed throughout that period. There was a strong recognition from the time of my appointment as Minister and, indeed, from the Government right throughout this period of the importance of supporting the sector in every way we can. That is why we have seen the PCR serial testing in meat factories which is not happening anywhere else and which is why, with the tremendous work led by Dr. Donal Sammin in the Department, we have led with the introduction of antigen testing and making that available as an additional tool working under a very strict protocol with the factories. Anything and everything has been done and I commend the work of the staff on ensuring that the food supply chain has kept going during this period.
