James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I confirm that I am within the confines of Leinster House.

I wish to say to Dr. Holohan and the members of NPHET that there is no doubting the fact that some of the measures we have put in place have saved very many lives throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. However, it has to be said that the group of witnesses before this committee, and I appreciate them coming before us today, need to have questions put to them, particularly for the many people who work in the aviation sector from whom all of us on the committee have heard here at meetings over the past number of months. It is arguably the case at the moment that NPHET is the most powerful unelected body in the country. Therefore, NPHET must be scrutinised by members of this committee, and by Members of both Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann.

From my own perspective, I am extremely concerned about Ireland's lackadaisical approach to the area of antigen testing. It is concerning to see Ireland being a laggard in this respect when countries like Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Germany, Denmark, Estonia, Spain, France, Hungary, Italy, and I could go on, are actively looking at the area of antigen testing and how it could benefit the area of aviation. We are, arguably, arriving at a position where Ireland will have its vaccination process completed, or relatively completed, towards the end of the summer and early autumn. Surely be to God we need to start looking at the implementation of antigen testing?

Professor Ferguson's report said antigen testing has specific benefits in terms of its implementation. I noticed that Dr. Holohan has used a couple of phrases here today regarding its accuracy. Arguably, in a controlled environment like an airport or aircraft where there is security, policing methods and crowd control in place already, surely there is no better place for us to consider implementing antigen testing? Specifically, on the area of aviation, why are we not looking at antigen testing?