Dr. Niamh Power:

On testing for travel, I did not suggest that we should test twice but that, in order to mitigate the risks arising from the period of time before a person would test positive on an antigen test but in which they would test positive on a PCR test, in other words, the early stage of infection, rather than insisting on a PCR test within 72 hours before a flight, which is now pretty standard in Europe and across the world, we could mitigate the risks by requiring the test to be taken within the 48 hours, or even 24 hours, before a flight. That would solve that issue.

There certainly has not been any contact with private companies. V1 Medical has not been contacted. I spoke to the founder and owner of one of the longest-standing travel medicine clinics in Ireland and this clinic had not been contacted. I have also spoken to someone involved with a company which, although a newer entrant to the market, is one of the larger testing companies providing testing at the airports and this company has also not been contacted.

To quickly go back to Deputy Lowry's last question, V1 Medical was in consultation with one of the major Irish sporting bodies about a test event it was hoping to run in May. This body contacted ourselves and some other test providers. We went through the logistics and set up a digital platform. This was presented to Government but permission was denied. The next event in that sporting series is now to go ahead with no testing and very limited numbers, as Deputy Lowry mentioned.

On the issue of cost, to put it simply, regardless of overheads, manpower and so on, in the last week I was quoted between €95 and €180 for the processing of a PCR test while I can buy a rapid antigen test for less than €5. That is the cost issue we are facing if we really want to push PCR testing as opposed to antigen testing.