Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The idea that a testing centre in Dundalk would be closed down and moved to Ardee misses the point entirely. That is splitting the difference. For the sake of good planning we should be making sure that the response is where the service is needed, which in this case is Drogheda. Looking at it on population terms or need terms, an objective case can and should be made to locate a centre of some permanence in Drogheda. The HSE facilities are there and it would not take huge initiative to try to ensure that the resources are allocated to those facilities. Being quick on local testing is critical to beating this condition and making sure that our economy remains open, that people stay in work and that businesses continue to thrive under difficult circumstances. Far too many people are waiting for days for tests while their families remain at home, not at school, and partners and so on have to absent themselves from the workplace.

Money has been no object in the fight against Covid-19. We are borrowing eye-watering sums of money to tackle this condition and we will do the same next year. It is better to plan in advance for a problem we know we will have rather than simply to react to it in a few months' time, when the Minister of State will acknowledge in the House that perhaps we should have established a Covid-19 testing centre in Drogheda. I implore him and the senior Minister to make the right decision now for Drogheda, a decision that makes policy sense.

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