Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I express my deepest sympathies to Pat Smullen's wife, Frances, and his family. He was an iconic figure in the racing world who is deeply mourned by his family and friends. I salute his absolute courage and commitment to cancer care and in taking on what was the greatest challenge in his life.

Just because Deputy McDonald says things does not mean they are true. The Deputy has a habit of deliberately distorting and undermining genuine and significant efforts in regard to dealing with Covid-19 and in her own commentary and contribution tends to evade the hard questions as well, particularly in regard to Dublin. I look forward to the Deputy's support next week in terms of whatever advice comes from NPHET. I would appreciate that support as the Government may implement that particular advice.

On testing, today the HSE has surpassed the 1 million test mark in this country. Last week, there was a 70% increase in community testing requests from general practitioners, GPs. The system has managed to deal and cope with that. Obviously the return of our schools has created additional pressures, as is the case all over Europe. Interestingly, the positivity rate for children tested between 0 to 14 is less than 1%. There is a daily capacity of 15,000 for community and acute hospitals. The HSE will say that this is more crucial than the 100,000 weekly figure. Some 11,000 is for community tests where spikes are identified and the remainder is for capacity in our acute hospitals. It is quite significant in terms of what has been achieved to date. This week, thus far, there have been further increases in testing requests but there is more swabbing capacity in place and testing sites ready to deal with it. On average, there will be 10,000 community swabs per day alongside 3,000 in hospitals. In terms of serial testing, 12,000 tests are expected from nursing homes, 4,000 from meat plants and 3,000 from direct provision. This week, the HSE will reach its highest ever number of swabs taken and tests processed and this will continue to improve. Let us acknowledge the significant ramping up of the testing system. There is road to go yet. The system was set up mid-flight as the pandemic took hold.

Deputy McDonald made the statement that the plan is sketchy. The plan is not sketchy. It is very specific in terms of creating a dedicated workforce for testing in the country. The Deputy would know that if she read the plan. A 3,000 strong workforce is to be employed. That is provided for in the plan. That specific figure is in it. Currently, the HSE is recruiting 700 people to take swabs and 500 contact tracing staff. Those are specific figures that are in the plan. The Deputy knows that yet she chooses deliberately to distort and seek to mislead in regard to it. The plan provides for 30 test centres, a minimum of one test centre per county, six pop-up fleets, a number of dedicated contact tracing centres and the response to clusters as they emerge. The situation on testing is comprehensive. There is a clear plan to expand and ramp up testing further.

On the overall plan, it is a good plan in terms of the five levels. Ireland is one of the first EU member states to come up with a comprehensive plan of this kind. On Dublin, the advice presented to us by NPHET has been adopted by Government and made public. NPHET, as I said yesterday, may come forward with further advice in that regard on Thursday.

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