Ms Orla Hegarty:

Carbon dioxide monitoring in schools is a cheap, quick, easy way, and would pay for itself with energy savings because people will not have to overventilate and sit in the cold. They will be able to ventilate adequately for the risk, so they will save on heating bills. The Chairman mentioned testing in Chicago. I recently noticed that San Francisco has posters in windows of business premises where they have had an independent inspection. Somebody has come out and given advice. It is not just about inspecting the building but about public confidence to go back to enter those businesses again. They have posters in the windows to state that the building was inspected on a certain date, which system they are using, or if the door has to be open, the filter has to be on, or whatever the requirements are. There is really good public health information.

Regarding the quarantine hotels, we have a lot of information from Australia and New Zealand about risk factors there, very strongly indicating that traditional hotels with rooms off long corridors with air conditioning are a bad idea for disease spread. It is not a minor risk. The outbreak in Victoria was purely down to a hotel breach and 800 people died as a result of that breach. Perth recently had a five-day shutdown following a hotel quarantine breach.

They are now looking more broadly at non-city centre locations akin to low-rise buildings or even caravan parks, that type of setting, for their permanent quarantine facilities in Australia. It also means one takes away the risk of city centre staff members living in overcrowded conditions themselves whereby outbreaks can spread or who perhaps have a second job or use public transport. Outside city locations seem to be better, as do hotels with opening windows and not air-conditioned hotels. It is getting away from that corridor model. We have plenty of advice from Australia that could be adopted here from what they have learned. Can the Chair remind me of the final point?