Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The lab capacity we have is slightly over 100,000. At the start of this, as we all know, a lot of that capacity was off the island. We simply did not have the lab capacity here. That capacity is now on the island. We have an existing contract with a German lab for a few thousand which we can use, but it is important to say that the testing capacity is on the island. It is for 100,000 tests. The additional staff the HSE is now hiring are to that capacity, so the additional swabbers are to replace exactly the therapists Deputy Cullinane talks about. He quite rightly says, however, that we are increasing capacity further. This is one of the efforts the HSE is going to in order to make sure we have the tightest possible turnaround times. What we are all seeing now with the roadmap is, as Dr. Glynn has alluded to, that the virus spreads very quickly in different parts of the country. We want to be able to make sure not only that we have standing swabbing capacity everywhere within a certain distance or drive from everybody's home but also, where we see particularly big outbreaks, that we can deploy mobile capacity. The full number the HSE is hiring is to the 100,000. I have not been given any report. We are looking at additional capacity but I wish to re-emphasise, because the HSE has been at pains to say this, that this is not a resource that is easily found. There is a very-----