Dr. Tomás Ryan:

I will come back to mass testing. I do not say it as a criticism to anybody involved but we do not currently have a decision-making structure that can comprehend the investment in mass testing.

NPHET looks at it from the perspective of diagnostics. Public health is highly conservative in how it views testing. None of the new testing technologies will ever be as rigorous as the standardised testing that we do currently. That is a problem with decision-making and should be taken on board. HIQA is thorough and rigorous. It is also a desk-based research organisation. HIQA will assess the success of these technologies in other countries but will not necessarily interpret the context of these tests, where they were developed or how quickly they can be made more efficacious. What is missing from the entire situation is a scientific advisory committee that closely monitors how we can assess the current state of mass testing in the world and how we can employ it rapidly in Ireland.

Many experts in Ireland are working on this particular topic. The chief scientific adviser is essentially sitting on a committee that was supportive of the research advisory group ancillary to NPHET. In my view, there has not been enough scientific input into these kinds of questions. If that was to change, we would have a better way of looking at this.