Dr. John Cuddihy:

The first thing to say is that in Ireland we have a very broad definition of healthcare worker. It encompasses anyone who works in healthcare, either public and private. In other European countries this is often much more specific, sometimes down to doctors and nurses but in some cases healthcare staff who work in the front line. Second, from the outset of this pandemic in Ireland healthcare workers have been prioritised for testing. Even when availability of testing may not have been as good as it is now, healthcare workers were prioritised so more healthcare workers were tested as a result. Third, even in the course of this pandemic when the number of cases were low, healthcare workers in hospitals and residential care facilities continued to care for patients with Covid-19 so their risk of-----