Colm Brophy (Dublin South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will start with the HSE. First, I record our thanks for all the work everybody throughout the entire HSE and the health service has done. I will make a few quick points before asking questions. I am very supportive of the testing programme and the work that was done in getting the laboratories, including the German laboratory, on board. It is vital that the HSE continues to deliver that service in the best possible way and is not influenced by the individual requirements of companies in different parts of Ireland looking for business, no matter who is selling it on their behalf. I would like to see the HSE continue to provide that service based on the best possible clinical practice, results and outcomes. That is important to put on record.

I am conscious of the time being very limited. Dr. Henry has said a number of times that the HSE has capacity for X or that 20,000 odd tests were being done in a day and so on. However, our testing requirements are now much lower. Maybe this is a real layperson's view but I cannot understand why, if the numbers being tested have gone so low because of a lack of community transmission, the HSE still cannot get the turnaround time down to a day. The median figure and the average number of days was quoted earlier. The infrastructure is there and the witnesses say it can be turned on at the drop of a hat. If we have the existing infrastructure, the capacity of which one of the witnesses from the HSE said was in excess of what is needed at this moment, why are still not delivering the same turnaround times in the community as we are in, say, a hospital setting?