Dr. Cillian De Gascun:

I cannot give the Deputy an exact date. The validations are ongoing. It is worth highlighting that the first point of any of this is to demonstrate that the antigen test works in general - in other words, that it works off-the-shelf. We know from the HIQA report, which the Deputy alluded to, that typically the manufacturers claims have not necessarily been held up by independent verifications. We want to see large-scale independent assessments of these tests, with the results published in the peer review literature such that we can introduce them. There is a sense out there that I am against antigen testing; I am not. I need a good reason to move away from the best test that we have. The antigen test will need to be evaluated in each setting in which it is proposed to use it. For example, for it to be used in an airport, a nursing home or a school setting, a validation or a verification, at least, would be required in each of those settings.