Dr. Tony Holohan:

What we rely upon for any new drug or test is published evidence on its use in a particular clinical setting, and I will refer the Deputy to one report. If he reads the Royal Statistical Society report, it is an excellent treatise on the dangers and risks of applying tests where there is not good evidence to support the application of those tests and on the standards that need to apply in the conduct of validation studies. It makes many points and I would encourage the Deputy to read it. We are talking about applying antigen tests in a wide variety of different settings. We need to have that informed by the conduct of well-planned and organised validation studies that are applied to each of those sectors so that we know and understand what the impacts of them are. That is a position the Ferguson report also sets out and that is our position.