How is Ireland’s meat industry handling recent Covid-19 outbreaks?

Covid-19 has thrust the Republic’s multibillion-euro meat industry into the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. Outbreaks of the virus among workers in several plants forced their temporary closure, and were a factor in the Government partially shutting down counties Kildare, Laois and Offaly.

The meat industry has two basic divisions. One is primary processing, which involves killing the animals, butchering them, packing the cuts and selling them to shops, restaurants, fast-food chains including McDonald’s and Burger King, food service businesses and others.