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. 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. 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.

Source: The Irish Times August 13, 2020 16:02 UTC