Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

It does not seem to make sense. I also struggle to figure out what exactly is happening with regard to testing and tracing. I raised this issue with Paul Reid this morning and asked him why the 100,000 tests per week capacity that is currently available is not being used. He told me that NPHET determines the testing that is done. I asked NPHET about the matter and was told that it is important that testing capacity is protected and ready to go when it is needed. Does the Minister understand what that means? I would suggest that this testing capacity is absolutely needed now. All one needs to do is to look at the outbreak in Cahir, for example, where there were 22 cases in a meat factory and 16 other associated cases. Why were we not using that spare capacity to test in the high risk settings?