Following a meeting with the HSA yesterday, a spokeswoman for Tánaiste Leo Varadkar told The Irish Times that Mr Varadkar had discussed “how the authority and other regulators and inspectorates could be given greater legal authority to be informed of, and carry out, Covid-related inspections” in the event of a workplace outbreak.

Under health and safety laws passed in 2005, employers were obliged to report diseases as “personal injuries” to the HSA but a change in the law in 2016 removed this obligation.

The concerns of a “loophole” were raised by TD James Lawless, who is also a qualified barrister.

He tweeted: “I raised loophole this week re health and safety rules and that Covid19 not ‘notifiable’ meaning outbreaks can go unreported. HSA needs full powers to inspect, sanction, monitor and I believe a simple change to regs can achieve this.”

In a later tweet he added: “My request is more onerous obligations on workplaces which in turn mandates HSA to act. Simple change to this would do the trick and can be done by ministerial order.”