Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their presentations and for the time they spent preparing them. I will get straight into the questions. In terms of scalability, how quickly could Duelchem scale up to service the Irish aviation sector and airports? Is it the technology piece that they do, or do they also do the testing piece? Do they work with partners regarding that?

Dr. Power has a very interesting perspective on the issue, given her background. I am very interested in hearing about her experience. I have a similar question to her in terms of scalability. She outlined the operation she has. If the Government was to say that we are moving to antigen testing in the near future, prior to departure and post arrival, would her firm be in a position to get involved or what sort of scale needs to happen in the meantime?

This question is for Dr. Power as well. There seems to be significant resistance to antigen testing. I want to hear Dr. Power’s perspective on and experience of that. Where does she think it is coming from? Could she speak to the point of affordability and convenience and also the aspect which has arisen in terms of public health? Is there a risk associated with antigen testing, particularly serial antigen testing? Professor Mark Ferguson raised this as a prospect and real opportunity with us on 5 May and the committee raised it with the Government. Could Dr. Power speak to the strength of antigen testing in terms of how it compares with PCR testing?