Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This is a very important question because the entire premise of Covid is test, trace and isolate. A comprehensive, reliable and responsive testing and tracing operation is central to our public health strategy.

Capacity has been in place since early summer to test 15,000 people a day. While the system came under pressure in recent weeks, overall the system is working well and is proving central to our public health response. Rigorous contact tracing, automatic testing of close contacts, serial testing in high-risk environments and large-scale testing in outbreak situations mean we are proactively finding more cases than we would have found previously. Today, we learned that there are 357 cases and, unfortunately, three people have lost their lives. I offer my sympathies and condolences to their families.

In recent weeks we have needed to flex resources up significantly as demand has increased. We are testing more people than ever before, with over 71,000 tests completed in the week ending 12 September. Community testing has increased in line with a steady increase in the prevalence of the disease and the HSE has deployed additional resources to meet this increased demand.  This included the opening of additional community testing centres and mobile pop-up testing units, significantly increased contact tracing teams and increased laboratory testing.

Our testing strategy and infrastructure compare well internationally. We are in the top third of EU countries in terms of tests completed as a percentage of the overall population and capacity levels and turnaround times are similar to those of many countries. We are also going further than many other countries in pursuing a robust testing strategy, which includes testing of close contacts and serial testing in nursing homes and food processing facilities.

That is not to say we cannot improve further. We can always improve. I acknowledge that the system has come under strain in recent weeks. The HSE is now finalising a future service model for testing and tracing. The plan includes the recruitment of a permanent workforce, which has already commenced, and a range of other service improvements which will be rolled out quickly. Transition to the new model is under way and will continue throughout the autumn.

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