David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Mr. Reid and I again thank him, his team and all of the front-line healthcare workers for their service. I have a number of questions to put to Mr. Reid in respect of which I have only ten minutes so Mr. Reid will appreciate that if his answers are as succinct as possible it will allow me to put many of those questions. My first question relates to the number of weekly tests being carried out. Mr. Reid said that the HSE recorded the highest weekly tests since April at 55,000, which we should welcome. On 26 April, Mr. Reid said that there were confirmed plans to ramp up testing for Covid-19 to 100,000 tests per week and that it was expected that the 100,000 weekly test rate would be reached by the third week in May. Can Mr. Reid give me the figure for the number of tests carried out in the third week of May? How is it that we are at only 55,000 and not the 100,000 that Mr. Reid promised on 26 April we would be at now?