Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On testing and tracing, the HSE will publish its revised plan on testing and tracing today, with updated key performance indicators. On the volume of testing, as I stated earlier, 44,000 tests have been carried out in the past seven days. That works out at roughly 6,000 per day, which I think is the figure referred to by the Deputy. As he rightly pointed out, the capacity is there to do more. The current clinical guidelines are to test people who have symptoms, as well as carrying out some screening in certain places.

It is a good idea to have spare capacity because if we find that there is a surge or a series of clusters next week or the week after we will need that spare capacity. I am happy with the volume of testing being done. We are in the top ten EU countries for tests per head. I am not yet happy with the turnaround times; they need to improve. I think the HSE and everyone acknowledges that. I know from my own clinical practice that healthcare staff are getting the results back within a day or two but within the community it is closer to five. It needs to be better than that. We acknowledge that there is a shortcoming there.

The app is being developed. I had a verbal briefing on it yesterday. It will be voluntary, not compulsory, and because it is voluntary, it will be less effective. The more people who download and use it the more effective it will be, the fewer that do so the less effective it will be but it will be voluntary. It will have the benefit of additionality but it is not an alternative to traditional manual contact tracing. The data will be held on the phone. It will not be held centrally by Government. I understand it will be field tested in June. I do not know the exact answer to the question about the European Convention on Human Rights but I will check it out.

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