Dr. Tony Holohan:

To go back to what the Minister said, our advice now is that people make contact with their GP. The GPs have a very simple algorithm that will enable them to make an assessment of an individual's travel history and their symptoms and to make an appropriate recommendation to an individual as to whether he or she requires further assessment at hospital level. We must provide GPs with the information were a situation to arise that somebody simply arrived into a GP surgery. Let us be clear that we are not directing people, whom we believe to be symptomatic potentially with Ebola or such conditions to general practice surgery as the place for that assessment.

A question was asked about the containment facilities in the national isolation unit. Currently there is a capacity of 12 beds and there are plans in place to double that capacity.

An active plan is being developed through the hospitals division in the HSE to consider expanding that capacity in the event that it is needed. As Senator Crown rightly stated, it is a question of identifying what is likely in terms of provision and going one step further to ensure that we are in a position to-----