Mr. John King:

We do not have documented evidence. We indicated to the HSE and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform when they introduced that policy that it was wrong and could act as a disincentive. The context, in terms of what was happening in the HSE when that policy was introduced, does not reflect the context today in terms of testing capability and so on. One outcome of that policy and the ease with which people were being sent home and, in many cases, left at home for up to two weeks without being tested if they showed any symptom was that 97% or thereabouts of those sent home were shown not to have any symptoms. In those circumstances, people were financially penalised. The point of telling that particular story in the submission was not to labour that point but to say that policies such as that which serve to act as a disincentive when dealing with an issue like Covid-19 can be counterproductive. For this reason, we argue that such policies should not be in place.