Michael Clifford: Beef factory workers are living in fear

Proper investigation needs to be  conducted into how essential staff in the meat industry are treated

A Covid-19 testing facility in Tullamore, Co Offaly, where nine people have tested positive for the virus in the Carroll Cuisine meat factory.

Society needs all sorts to keep functioning. It needs those who can turn a buck, who oil the wheels of commerce, which in turn keeps the economy ticking over.

It also needs essential workers, people on whom society depends to keep supplying the basics even during, for instance, a deadly pandemic.