Mr. Barry O'Brien:

We have written to all appropriate State Departments and agencies. To answer Deputy Lowry's question, apart from getting an acknowledgement of receipt, there has been no approach to us by any Department or agency. Having also discussed this with the sporting organisations, it appears to us that, while they are all very favourably disposed, they do not want to engage in the testing as such. Somebody else has to do the testing but they are favourably disposed to the technology. They also want to deal with the issue of cost. There appears to be a fear in the public sector that the Department of Health's policy is against antigen testing. Consequently, nobody is pursuing these discussions with us or with others. That seems to be the fear.

On the cost, if one is talking about the volumes I have mentioned and getting Croke Park filled as quickly as possible, the cost of these tests drops dramatically to a fraction of what was indicated earlier by Dr. Power and others.