Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Taoiseach. This is a problem now. The announcement was made of 100,000 tests per week and the presumption is that to do that one must have the necessary capacity. I believe the correct approach is for these 100,000 tests to be real tests, not some notion where we say theoretically we have the capacity to do this. The Taoiseach will know as well as I that from the beginning of this pandemic, the best international scientific and medical advice was test, test, test, then isolate, then trace, trace, trace.

It is very dangerous to propose unwinding emergency measures in the absence of comprehensive testing. I reiterate that the 100,000 tests have to be real tests. That figure cannot be a target or an aspiration. Some 100,000 tests must go through the laboratories, with the results returned to the persons concerned in a timely fashion. I am very worried that the Government's announcement of its roadmap out of the emergency measures, which we all want to see, will show a reticence and a lack of ambition or intent concerning the level of testing that is needed. I am sure the Taoiseach will not challenge the view of the WHO and others to the effect that governments must test, test, test. How do we keep our population safe in the absence of that very comprehensive testing? I am troubled and concerned to hear the Taoiseach confirm that this is an aspirational target for the building of capacity rather than the carrying out of tests. I put it to him that carrying out 100,000 tests per week is necessary because we need to know where the virus is. That is what all the experts tell us. It is only by knowing where in the population it is that we can actually isolate it and carry out tracing.

There is a contradiction in the position of the Government. We have heard talk of testing people with no symptoms. That strikes me as a wise approach, but it is in total contradiction to what has been set out here. I put it to the Taoiseach that the 100,000 tests should be real tests, not an aspiration or a target, and I ask him to take action to ensure that is the case.

See this speech in context