Professor Mark Ferguson:

As far as I am aware, the report has not been officially discussed at NPHET, although I have discussed it, especially with Dr. Glynn, before Dr. Holohan returned to work. They see it as complementary. Their view is also that it is up to line Departments other than the Department of Health to implement some of the recommendations. One can see a flavour of that in the recommendations in the report. The Department of Health is focused on rolling out the vaccination programme while looking at hospitals, general practitioners and so on. It is for other the Departments, including Education, Transport and Enterprise, Trade and Employment, to take the lead and to involve the HSE where appropriate. The HSE is involved in the confirmatory PCR test. One of the interesting things about our recommendations is that one can do the antigen test and then, if one tests positive, the confirmatory PCR test is not just about a confirmation of the test but bringing a person within the governance of the HSE, since he or she is now within that system. If one makes that link, that is how one will get the Department of Health on board. It becomes involved at that point.