Joe Carey (Clare, Fine Gael)
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I thank Professor Ferguson for appearing before the committee. I read the report and I am very encouraged by its findings and recommendations. If we look to other jurisdictions, we see that Ireland is behind the curve. I strongly believe we need to embrace this as a way to reopen our economy and society and to keep it open. That is the main point. If we look across to the UK, we can see that households there can apply for two test kits a week and millions of these test kits have been brought into the UK. We need to do the same in Ireland. Professor Ferguson has recommended that we move at pace on this. I strongly endorse that recommendation and call on the Government to do just that, and to make arrangements to put these recommendations into place.

Obviously, there is movement in terms of rolling out pilots here and the Minister, Deputy Harris, has moved on this in the higher education sector. I see a real opportunity for Shannon Airport as a distribution and logistical hub for the delivery of test kits and their distribution across the country. The UK used Bournemouth Airport to do that and I think Shannon is very well placed to play a leading role in the distribution of these kits.

What is the difference between antigen testing and LAMP testing? I see there are differences between them in the report so Professor Ferguson might explain that.