David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Sorry, I have Mr. Reid's direct quote. What he said was that it is expected that the 100,000 weekly test rate would be reached, not the capacity to do it but the actual number of tests. I am not sure whether Mr. Reid misspoke then or whether we just have not reached our target, but given that we had a number of counties in semi lockdown, one of which still remains in lockdown, and that we have higher levels of contraction not just for meat plants but in terms of clusters in some parts of the country I think people would expect to be hitting higher targets. The 55,000 is down from a high of 60,000. I am not judging Mr. Reid on my figures because it would be irresponsible of politicians to make up figures, rather I am putting to him what was reported widely in all of the newspapers, namely, that the figure would be 100,000 and it would be the number of tests that would be carried out.