Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I am raising with the Minister the question of testing and tracing. This is the strategy on which everything else is based. An enormous national effort is being put in based on the premise that the strategy of test and trace would actually operate, but it has not operated at anything like at the scale that is required. We have been told that the target figure for capacity should be 15,000 tests per day, which is 105,000 per week. We are currently testing fewer than 42,000 per week. There is a huge gap to be made up and people are becoming frustrated. People are making extraordinary sacrifices. They are doing everything they are told and yet the State is not delivering on its side of the bargain. Frustration is growing, understandably, because of that. This really needs to be dealt with as a matter of urgency. The public are putting in an enormous effort. We know now, according to the national public health emergency team, that unless the target is reached we cannot start to unwind the restrictions. That is the first point about test and trace.

The second issue relates to tracing. What are the current numbers regarding those being traced? Can the Minister provide detail on that? We have not had any detail on that whatsoever. Can he tell us about that now?

The third question is on nursing homes. There is a population of approximately 60,000, between staff and residents, in nursing homes. I gather that the Minister used a figure of 28,000 earlier in respect of those who have been tested. When are the others going to be tested? Can the Minister give us a target date for completing that testing?

Those are my questions on testing. Does the Minister accept that we cannot start lifting restrictions until we have full capacity in place? When exactly will that happen? When will the Minister complete nursing home testing? What is the current level of contact tracing?

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