Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I confirm that I am in the convention centre. I had to move while the committee was sitting. I welcome Dr. Holohan, Dr. Glynn and all of the team who are here today. I thank them for their role and efforts in the past 12 to 15 months or so.

I very much take the view that rapid antigen testing is a cheap, fast, uncomplicated and most important of all, safe way, of testing people before they travel. We have seen approximately 17 European countries embrace this. If one takes a PCR test three days before departure, in the three-day period between testing and boarding the flight one will come into contact with hundreds of door handles, flush hundreds of loos, turn on taps, hand driers and multiple items. There are multiple opportunities for an individual to pick up the Covid virus elsewhere. While the PCR test is considered the gold standard, it does not capture everything. It is rather akin to being breathalysed a few hours before one goes to the local pub: it does not capture all the information and it does not capture the most salient information in terms of antigen levels at the point of departure.

Testing in the field has been mentioned but why would we not consider a parallel regime, not a competing regime, of antigen testing to capture the most up to date data before someone boards a flight?