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REPRESENTATIVES of two of the country’s foremost meat processing plants, Irish Country Meats and its parent company, Slaney Foods, have spoken to this newspaper about the impact the Covid-19 pandemic has had on their businesses and the necessary precautions that have taken place to ensure the safety of workers.
Rory Fanning, the Managing Director of Slaney Foods, highlighted the fact that as a food provider the company is ‘an essential business’.
However, he also said the business adapted itself quickly to the developing pandemic with measures implemented in early March to ensure the company could continue its activities to provide essential food produce.
‘Our priority from day one has been the health and safety of our employees,’ said Mr Fanning.
He said measures were implemented by his company in March, that all companies reopening in the coming weeks will have to put in place to ensure the health and safety of staff.
‘The HSE guidelines have been the foundation of all that we do and we are very grateful for all they are doing to support essential business,’ said Mr Fanning.
The then outlined some of the comprehensive set of measures that were put in place weeks ago to ensure the business would remain virus free and be in a position to continue to provide its service.
‘We have temperature checks on entry to the site, we facilitate adequate social distancing not only in production but in staff facilities and canteens, and we engage daily in communication to our people on the key themes of hand washing, distancing and rules regarding personal etiquette,’ said Mr Fanning.
His comments were echoed by his counterpart in Irish Country Meats, John Walsh, who said that as a food processing business PPE is already a daily routine for staff members.
‘Additional PPE, which is different to medical PPE, has been added where required and we also made structural changes to help health and safety,’ said Mr Walsh.
Like his colleague, Mr Walsh praised the staff who he said had made a ‘tremendous effort’ to ensure the safety of everyone working in the plant.
‘Everyone is very respectful to everyone else and the company hugely appreciates the efforts and commitment of our staff,’ said Mr Walsh.
The two managers also thanked the Department of Agriculture staff, veterinary inspectors and the farmers who work with them with Mr Fanning commenting: ‘Our food supply starts with the farmer and we work together with them to guarantee supplies.’
‘We all recognise that we are going to have to continue putting in all of these efforts for some time yet,’ he said.
Our experience to-date is proof that everybody’s hard work is not in vain,’ he added.
Mr Fanning said his business have been seriously impacted by the closure of restaurants and hotels not just in Ireland but also in the UK, Europe and worldwide.
‘We appreciate that the situation regarding Covid-19 has to improve a lot to bring the hospitality sector back to life again,’ he said.
‘In the meantime, we will remain vigilant, we will continue to maintain robust procedures that we have in place, and we will continue to take direction from the HSE and other relevant authorities.’