Dr. Tony Holohan:

I will bring in some colleagues to answer. I cannot accept a number of assertions that the Deputy has made about our motivation, position and advice. Our position on antigen testing is not as articulated by the Deputy. Our position on antigen testing is that it is used in situations where that is supported by evidence. We have outlined already, on a number of occasions this afternoon, the circumstances in which such use is endorsed by us, and it is made available in symptomatic and high-risk situations.

Dr. Glynn or Dr. Keogan will come back to the meat processing examples in a moment. Many other countries use antigen testing in a variety of different settings and for different purposes. Members will have heard Professor Keogan mention earlier that, for example, it can relate to the relative availability of PCR capacity. We have been in the fortunate position that we built up PCR testing capacity to a very high level and it is well in excess right now of what our current demand for PCR testing. So we have a better test and it is available, which is why we use it. Many other countries are not in that happy position.

In terms of the relative position, which I outlined earlier, we have seen in relative terms that the incidence of this infection in this country has been one of the better in Europe, and the impact of that in terms of the number of deaths. Earlier when the Deputy asked for NPHET's position on testing and the impact of NPHET's advice on the airline industry what he did not mention was the virus. It is Covid that has created that impact. The measures that are in place regarding the restriction of airline travel impact airline travel all over the world and it is because of the following. Quite simply, when this infection began, we had no natural immunity as a global population, we had no vaccines and we had no drugs to treat this disease. All we had available to us was the relatively crude means of keeping people apart from each other for long enough to stop the transmission of that infection. Unfortunately, at a global level, that had a big impact on many activities and one of those clearly was the airline industry. It simply is not the case to say that we, in some selective way, in this country through advice from NPHET selectively impacted the airline industry on a basis that was not proportionate to our concern about the transmission of this infection.

We followed, for the most part, the international guidance that came from international bodies and measures that were in step with measures that were happening around the world but, in particular, in this part of the world. What people must bear in mind is that the spread of this infection through successive waves has seen Europe in the path of each of those waves over the course of the last 15 months. We have been at the epicentre of this since the get-go and that has had a big impact on a relatively small country that has such open relations with the rest of Europe. That is the reason we have had that impact. It is the virus. Our recommendations are based on interrupting the transmission of the virus. Our evidence tells us that we have done a good job in this country through the efforts that ordinary people have made to comply with public health guidance. That is what has, in relative terms, given protection around incidence, etc.

The Deputy talked about antigen testing in a global sense without recognising that antigen testing applied to symptomatic, serial and one-off. Whether it is symptomatic or asymptomatic is entirely different. We had a different view in relation to it in each of those settings.