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

I wish to make a final point. I fully appreciate all of the work that has been done, including on the report, but if we had started earlier, we would be further down the line. We could have started this work last November if we had made that decision and we would now have a different evidence base.

We are talking about pure science, including randomised controlled studies. No one knows better than the witnesses the difficult and complex environment in which we are fighting the virus. There was no opportunity to do so, but we have taken many measures that have not undergone the level of scrutiny that we are proposing to apply to antigen testing. Many people might wonder why.