Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I want to follow up on the point with regard to serial testing. I welcome the comment by Mr. Reid that it is useful and very beneficial because some utterances in the Dáil Chamber would suggest that perhaps serial testing is a novelty that we could do without.

I want to talk in particular about the food processing sector because I am of the belief that at least some of the recent upsurge is due to our collective failure to get a handle on cases emerging from those settings. Evidence is now emerging internationally, including through studies such as that carried out in the Rhineland by Thomas Günther et al. The study clearly states that common operational conditions within industrial meat processing plants promote the risk of super spreading events. That is why we are carrying out serial testing. It is not because we think there is a constant large outbreak at every single plant. Rather, it is because if we do not catch clusters in those settings, they will emerge in other settings which means an increased risk to the wider community.

For the purposes of context, I ask Mr. Reid to give an indication of the number of food processing factories where serial testing took place last week and the number of tests that were carried out at those centres. The sound has gone.