Freshwater Pearl Mussel Ireland

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic we have made some changes to our day to day operations. The health, safety and wellbeing of our participant farmers, colleagues, project stakeholders and the wider community, is our priority during this time. We intend to continue our operations incorporating safeguards to ensure compliance with government guidelines, while allowing us to continue to provide contracted services to our clients. During this time we will be constantly reviewing our operations and procedures to ensure we are in line with best practice guidance.

Changes to normal operations

All staff are working from home. Our phone lines remain open and calls and emails will be dealt with as normal.

All upcoming farmer training meetings that were to be held over the next months are postponed until further notice. We are currently exploring alternative means of holding these remotely.

One-on-one farmer meetings can now take place subject to prior agreement with the relevant farmers. Any such meetings will follow strict adherence to social distancing guidelines. Where social distancing is not possible then additional safeguards will be implemented.

We will be in touch with farmers, advisors, or other stakeholders to make alternative arrangements for any scheduled face-to-face meetings. Where feasible scheduled face-to-face meetings will be replaced with phone or video call.

Precautions during farm visits

As of the 18th of May farm visits and field surveys will resume where they are deemed necessary, don’t require close person-person contact, are agreeable with the landowner, and can be conducted in line with any guidance from public authorities.

Where possible surveyors will work in isolation, but where necessary a maximum of two surveyors may visit a site. When two surveyors are working together they must travel to and from the site separately and maintain a distance of 2m at all times.

Facemasks will be worn if requested by landowner / other party and where possible all meetings will take place outdoors. All staff will be equipped with hand sanitiser and disinfectant wipes which are to be used regularly throughout the day. All gates and surfaces will be wiped or sprayed with disinfectant after handling.

All staff will practice good hand hygiene and coughing etiquette at all times and only visit shops/petrol stations when necessary during travel to and from field sites, and use contactless payments where possible.

We will continue to monitor the situation and update our approach as necessary and will notify stakeholders of any significant changes. We wish all of our farmers and colleagues well during this difficult period.

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