Ms Niamh O'Beirne:

The Deputy's first question was about the support we have received from other public bodies. Since August, when we began to increase our staff numbers again, UCD was the first university with which we engaged for support. The Revenue Commissioners also provided us with support, as did the Defence Forces through the Army bands. We received support from our colleagues throughout the public service. Those who had previously been involved, including university staff and employees who were working in front-line positions, did not return to contact tracing specifically. The HSE staff members involved in contact tracing today include approximately 25 allied health professionals. Some environmental health officers, who are also front-line staff, and human resources staff are supporting our contact tracing effort. Those staff will return to their normal roles as we start to build up capacity through our new recruits. Earlier I mentioned a figure of 274; that is the number of new recruits who are dedicated to contact tracing. Another 80 or 90 are coming this week, which will bring the number to 350 next week. We need to increase that number to have a dedicated workforce that is not required to do other things as part of its normal work.

Staff members are also involved in swabbing, which is a separate part of the process. That part of the pathway has approximately 800 staff drawn from different professions throughout the HSE, particularly clinical staff. That number will decrease as we hire more community swabbers in the coming weeks. Our ultimate aim is a dedicated and stable testing and tracing workforce that is independent of front-line services and the HSE's other administrative and healthcare services. That was part of our overall organisational design for testing and tracing.