James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

In the limited time left to me I ask the Chair to indulge me with one more question. I know that our witnesses were asked about the infrastructure at airports. The whole area of working with elected representatives and Ministers on this issue is quite important. From my engagement with very senior members of the Government there is a degree of hesitation on their part until public health advice is given to them to put in any infrastructure that may be required. I wish to make the point to both our witnesses that the Ministers are very anxious to ensure that there is advice coming from both, and Dr. Holohan as the CMO, on putting in infrastructure at airports for any style of pre-departure testing or any testing facilities, if that becomes an advisable thing to do in the course of time, and when our witnesses will have more facts and data available to them to back such a decision up. I encourage the witnesses to ensure that they are reaching out to the Department of Transport. From what our witnesses have said to the committee, there is a bit of to-ing and fro-ing, in the sense that the Ministers are unsure of the public health advice and that our witnesses are saying that they cannot advise the Ministers but that they would have to go to the experts for advice on this issue. Do our witnesses have anything to say on that point?