HSA conducts more than 2,500 Covid-19 inspections in 10 weeks
Emerges Es Employees Plant In It For Have Meat Coronavirus Offaly As Processing Seven It Co At That A Tested Positive
The Health and Safety Authority (HSA) carried out 2,648 Covid-19 related inspections between mid-May and the end of July.
The watchdog has carried out a total of 3,422 inspections over the same period.
Forty-five prohibition notices have been issued to businesses by the watchdog, along with 39 improvement notices.
It comes as it emerges that seven employees at a meat processing plant in Co. Offaly have tested positive for Covid-19.
The workers at Carroll Cuisine are now self-isolating after contracting the virus during the past week.
The company employees 330 people at its Tullamore site.
No other positive cases have been identified and the company says it will continue testing all staff and will remain vigilant on a constant basis.
Sinn Féin's David Cullinane believes there needs to be more transparency around the watchdog's inspections:
Mr Cullinane said: "Not to publish the full list of every company that they were in, but to publish a report that essentially sets out the number of examinations and investigations on-site and off-site that they have done.
"The levels of compliance, the levels of non-compliance, the levels of enforcement orders, but more importantly then, where breaches have emerged, what were the nature of those breaches, what lessons have been learned."