Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed has said if public health advice requires a meat processing plant to close because of a Covid-19 outbreak, that will happen.
Speaking on RTÉ's This Week programme, Mr Creed said it would happen if that "ultimate sanction" was deemed necessary. However, he said he recalled the Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan saying it is not a recommendation that is currently being considered.
He said of the 56 licensed meat processing plants operating, there have been 12 clusters of Covid-19, so "less than one in four of plants has an issue".
However, he acknowledged that for every Covid-19 case, that "every one is one too many". He said there are HSE-led local outbreak teams and national outbreak teams