Workers have been treated appallingly during the pandemic. I refer to the front-line health workers, student nurses, Debenhams workers, Arcadia workers, taxi drivers and artists. The list could go on and on but among all the cases of abuses of groups of workers the treatment of workers in meat plants stands out as particularly shocking. They are low paid and highly exploited and are often migrant workers. They work in workplaces where a regime of fear and intimidation often exists, where almost 50% of workers say they face bullying and where Covid has run rampant in the past year.

I know of one worker who spoke up about conditions in the factory, including on social media. As a result, the employer did not sack him because then he could take an unfair dismissals case. Instead, he kicked him out of his accommodation because for many working in these plants the boss is not just their employer; he or she is also their landlord.

These workers have been abandoned repeatedly by a Government which is more interested in appeasing the beef barons than protecting the health of workers and the wider community. Today's Health Protection Surveillance Centre, HPSC, report reveals that out of 56 meat plants in the State there are 34 open outbreaks now. That is an extra four outbreaks in the past week. Almost two-thirds of meat plants across the State have had Covid cases in the past 28 days.

In the Larry Goodman-owned ABP Bandon plant, 70 out of 300 workers have tested positive for Covid. It is clear that the big beef barons are putting their wealth before their workers' health and the Government is letting them away with it. SIPTU has reported that the level of serial testing has been cut back in recent months also.

None of this should come as a surprise to the Government. It is now ten months since I first raised it in the Dáil. The response then of the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine was to accuse me of smearing the meat factory owners.

When the scale of the Covid outbreaks became clear, the Government was forced to feign concern. Last September, the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine told the Dáil that the issue of sick pay for meat factory workers was being addressed but nothing has changed. Ninety per cent of those workers still do not have sick pay. Many feel compelled to go into work even if they feel sick. I have asked the Minister about that repeatedly and have got no response.

My questions are very simple. Will the Government act now to ensure sick pay is introduced for meat factory workers? Will it step up serial testing in the meat plants? Will it extend the eviction ban to cover those in so-called tied accommodation to stop meat factory workers and others being kicked out of their accommodation for speaking out?

I thank the Deputy. It is good to see him here for Leaders' Questions. I am not sure if this is his regular slot or whether it is a consequence of his decision to join People Before Profit but I look forward to some interesting exchanges in the months ahead.

Let me be very clear. I do not have the slightest interest in beef barons. I have never met a beef baron. I do not know what a beef baron looks like, quite frankly. That is a populist conspiracy theory and it has no legitimacy whatsoever.

With regard to meat plants, meat plants are a high risk environment, and not just in Ireland. We have seen very serious outbreaks occur in meat plants all over the world, in Europe and in America. As we learn more and more about the virus we know that it is to do with the conditions in the plant itself more so than living conditions or transport, although they can be part of the picture. It is also to do with the air, the speed, the flow and the fact that people can be in quite close quarters and that often there is a lot of noise. That is why we now understand that they are a high risk environment. There had been thoughts previously that it was related to living conditions and transport but that does not seem to be the major factor because people living in similar conditions do not have as high a rate of contracting Covid.

In terms of what we are doing about it, for a start we are doing serial testing. The Deputy acknowledged that we are carrying out serial testing in our meat plants. I understand that the incidence is low. I do not have the exact figures now but I believe it may be substantially lower than 3% or 4%, which is the current rate in our community for symptomatic people.

I think it may even be less than 1%. It is encouraging that the number of positive cases is so low. I think there is an opportunity for greater use of antigen testing in meat plants and other workplaces. It is happening in construction. Kerry Group and Combilift are doing it. I would like to see the meat industry doing it as well if it is not already doing so.

As for sick pay, it is really important we get this message across: anyone, no matter where they work, is entitled to the enhanced illness benefit if they have Covid or symptoms of Covid, if they are waiting for a test or a test result or if they have been told by the HSE or their GP to self-isolate. The benefit is €350 per week and can be paid for up to ten weeks. It is important that this message comes across because sometimes I think that when workers hear they are not entitled to sick pay, they think that means they are entitled to nothing. That is not true. Any employee, any worker, no matter where he or she works, is entitled to €350 per week in the enhanced illness benefit. We are bringing through legislation to extend sick pay to all workers, something I am determined to do, having built on other things I have done in the past: extending social insurance rights to the self-employed, which I did as Minister for Social Protection and as Taoiseach; increasing the minimum wage to be one of the highest in Europe; and bringing in things such as paternity benefit and parental leave. These are real things we have actually done for workers, something I do not think Deputy Murphy claims to have done. Added to that now will be sick pay, and we anticipate having that legislation done this year.

If it is a populist conspiracy theory that the Government represents the interests of the beef barons and not the interests of the workers, why, ten months after this issue was first raised in the Dáil, has the Tánaiste not acted to introduce sick pay for beef factory workers? It is a very simple question. If the Government does not represent the interests of the beef barons, who had sales of €5 billion in 2018, which is huge money, why has serial testing been reduced at the plants? If the Government does not represent the interests of beef barons, why is it the case that employers who have their employees in so-called tied accommodation are not covered by the eviction ban? Why are they able to evict their workers if they speak out? There is lots and lots of evidence, unfortunately, to suggest that from the very start, when this issue was raised and the Government's response was to dismiss it, deny it and talk it down, the Government has consistently had the back not of the workers - and the workers need support - but of these big beef barons.

The job of any government - or at least any centrist government - is to represent all the people and to take account of all interests and not seek to create conspiracy theories about the 1% or to divide capital from workers or the middle class from the working class. Any responsible government, any centrist government, any moderate government, which is what we have in Ireland, tries to represent the interests of the whole population as best it can and takes into account all the factors at play. Workers need jobs, and we always have to bear that in mind in our policies too.

To respond to the question about sick pay, once again the message has to be put out there loud and clear in case any worker gets the wrong end of the stick: any worker who is off sick as a consequence of Covid is entitled to the enhanced illness benefit of €350 per week. We are bringing in legislation to extend sick pay not just to meat plant workers but to all workers who do not currently benefit from a sick pay scheme. I intend to publish that legislation before the summer recess and I hope, with the Deputy's co-operation, that we will get it through. I imagine that, as is often the case, he will find a reason to oppose it.

I will have to check the position on serial testing. The reason is probably that the risk profile has fallen and the number of positives is so low, but I do not know that for sure and I will check it.

I thank the Tánaiste. We are over time.

I will also check the issue of tied accommodation.