Mr. Kenneth Spratt:

I might make some remarks and then see if Mr. Towey has anything he wishes to add.

The benefit of departure testing is that the person would be required to take the test himself or herself 24 to 72 hours before actually departing. That result would be presented to the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service, INIS, on arrival at Dublin Airport. The person would not travel if he or she had received a positive test result. The benefit of that would be that that person would not have actually travelled and potentially come into close contact with all of the other travellers. Therefore, we would avoid a situation where if we had entry testing and someone tested positive, we would have to do all of the required follow-up with the other travellers, so there is that benefit. There is also the benefit of the cost being borne by the traveller. There is also the issue of capacity. The capacity for testing on arrival does not arise if one has departure testing. That is why we are looking at that as closely as we are. There is the potential to do not only a high-street test where a person purchases his or her own test but we could improve the standardisation of that through colleagues in the Department of Health, NPHET and the HPSC. As such we would set the bar relatively high and apply that to departure points. Again, that would reduce issues of capacity, credibility and cost. That is why we are looking at that as closely as we are.