Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The public have put in an extraordinary effort, but those in the HSE have done so as well. I have watched them move mountains to try to robustly put in place a testing process from something that did not exist previously, and they have done a very good job.

We all share the frustration and we want to be further on than we are - I agree absolutely. Yet, when we look at the international comparisons, we see a number of countries are lifting restrictions but have done fewer tests than we have. According to our world data website, we rank fourth highest in the European Union out of 22 EU and UK countries in terms of the number of tests completed per million of population. Many countries are lifting restrictions but doing fewer tests than us.

I do not accept the premise that restrictions cannot be lifted on 5 May because of testing. My word is one thing, but the Chief Medical Officer would not accept that either. He made it clear that the reason he does not believe he will be in a position to advise the lifting of restrictions is because of the behaviour of the virus.

Deputy Shortall is entirely correct to state that testing is a key component - I do not dispute that at all. We need to get to the point of having the capacity to test 100,000 per week or thereabouts or 15,000 per day. I hope Deputy Shortall got our briefing note this morning. The HSE has given a roadmap on how it intends to get there. It was agreed with the Department of Health to have end-to-end capacity for 10,000 tests per day this week, beginning on Monday last, 27 April. It is agreed to move to an ability to have 12,000 tests per day from Tuesday, 5 May, and to have an ability to do 15,000 tests from Monday, 18 May. This does not mean we will be doing that many tests each day. It depends on the case definition and a variety of other things. The point is to have that capacity in place. I hope this is in the note Deputy Shortall got. The HSE has also given the swab-to-result times and the end-to-end turnaround times. It is the case that we have hit bumps in the road - there is no doubt about it - but I believe we now have an agreed trajectory to get to 15,000 tests per day by the third week in May. That is good news. It will absolutely be required. The HSE officials need to continue to update on that matter and they will.

Deputy Shortall also asked about testing in nursing homes. My understanding, from conversations with the HSE officials, is that they expect to complete that this week. The expectation was to complete that this week.

The Deputy knows the HSE was starting with nursing homes with outbreaks and then moving to nursing homes with a case to test everyone there. Then it was moving to test at least staff in all other nursing homes and residents where clinically appropriate.

If the Deputy does not mind and in the interests of time, I will send her the answer about contact tracing.

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