Mr. Paul Reid:

I thank the Deputy. I will try to capture a summary response across the range of issues there. I cannot comment on the case the Deputy spoke of. I accept the legitimacy of what she says and the experience and feedback she has received.

I will speak to the overall experience with the data. We have worked very closely with schools and principals and 90% of the test results are back within 24 hours and communicated to the schools. In terms of schools looking for absolute consistency between how a pod or a classroom is treated, our public health doctors have clear processes to do this on a risk-based approach. They assess each scenario on its own merits, and that is absolutely the way it has to be. In terms of serial testing, they look at a range of scenarios and work with principals in schools in terms of giving advice back.

I will give the Deputy some figures. In the first week that schools were back, 17% of the total testing that week was conducted on children in the zero to ten age group.

In the second week, it was up to 36%. These are large volumes. Obviously, people are concerned and putting children forward for testing and that is what we want.

On the positivity rate, thankfully, in the first week it was 1.4%. It did drop back to 0.5% and it is about 1.9% now. We are watching that very closely. On the tracing process, it is the responsibility of the HSE and of our public health teams working with contact tracing teams in terms of follow-through. In terms of the overall experience and what has happened so far with schools, we have had total cases, like the index cases, of around 180 children. Another 84 of them were identified following on from those index cases. There were 11 outbreaks across the country and 4,328 children and some teachers were tested over the last few weeks. We are putting a huge focus on it, which, positively, is keeping our children back at school and keeping schools open, which is exactly what we want to do. I would be happy to take up some of the exceptions the Deputy raised with me today.