Mr. Fintan Towey:

Can I interject here, please? To be clear, I did intimate earlier that we do not have any confidence in testing, as referred to by the Chairman. I may not have been clear. On the question of confidence in testing processes, I am not personally an expert nor is the Department an expert but we are guided by the advice of public health experts on this matter. Our understanding of the public health expert advice is that the case for testing is very marginal with regard to its efficacy in contributing to the process of virus control. I know that other countries do it. Apart from the strict public health efficacy, other factors may be at play such as public confidence or the potential disincentive effect to travel that such a testing regime might entail. If nothing else, there is a significant cost involved in a testing process.