Professor Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh:

Yes. Go raibh maith agat, Seanadóir Dolan. On the question on antigen testing, as the Senator said, it is being led by Professor Breda Symth. Her role in HSE West was particularly helpful in the context of our work in this regard. We were very grateful to her. She is leading this project with others across four institutions, including ours, on antigen testing. I understand a further announcement will be made this week in that regard, which I do not want to pre-empt.

A Government structure has been put in place and Professor Symth is chairing it. Technology, including app and website technology, has been developed. Clinical end to end pathways have been developed in each of the institutions, namely Trinity, University College Cork, UCC, University College Dublin, UCD, and ourselves at National University of Ireland, NUI, Galway. The recruitment to testing is commencing this week. It is anticipated there will be an announcement as to how that might progress. Four institutions are involved with different pathways in each involving testing across different platforms and technology. As was mentioned, the antigen testing is a contested space. At all times we would be both informed by this research - as universities, it is our role to be evidence-based - and by public health advice about how effective it is and how we should implement it in the context of a return to campus in the autumn. A further announcement will be made this week. Those four institutions are involved with Professor Symth and Professor Charlie Spillane from Galway. I look forward to working with them further in that context.