Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I will respond quickly to that and back up what Dr. De Gascun said yesterday. It is important that our health officials are fully confident that the use of antigen testing does not pose a risk to public health. The advice for the moment is that it is not safe but that advice is subject to change. Indeed, we should be flexible and open to change when evidence allows. As I understand it, antigen testing was introduced in Italy for internal flights and the current advice from international health organisations and from NPHET is that it is not appropriate for international air travel. However, we may see it used for screening at-risk groups in nursing homes, meat factories and so on. If at any stage it is deemed appropriate for international air travel screening, I would love to see it introduced but we cannot do that against health advice.