Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 12 May 2021

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport

Covid-19 Testing and Air Travel: Nuevo Ireland

Mr. Niall Lord:

We want people to understand where we see value in this system across transport. We have had a lot of interest from airlines, be that from airline crews or handlers within the airline industry. Members will agree that when travel starts to reopen, our air crews and so on will effectively be front-line staff, especially if travelling on multiple flights across different countries. The testing for that is too slow at the moment with a 24-hour turnaround on PCR tests. Staffing will present its own problems for airlines. This is a solution that can be taken up from within the airline industry.

We are also looking at a pooling scenario whereby we could do one PCR test for pods or families. Instead of a family having to pay for four or five PCR tests, the tests could be pooled and we could give them one result. If there were a positive detection, the family would then need separate PCR tests. There are various capabilities in this system that will allow travel really to open up.

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