Frank Feighan (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputies Nash and O'Dowd for their commitment to trying to get a pop-up centre to Drogheda. They have made a very powerful case. As I said, the HSE advises that we are meeting all testing demand nationally across the end-to-end testing and tracing process, with adequate swabbing and laboratory capacity. I understand that these issues will be reviewed, and I will bring the Deputies' concerns to the Minister's attention.

Unlike many other European countries, our testing demand does not currently exceed supply. We are one of a few countries that automatically test close contacts as well as conducting serial testing. We are among the highest ranked in Europe on testing per million of population, having done more testing than Germany, France, Norway, Italy, etc. As I said, the HSE last week did 85,000 tests, our largest number yet: 52,000 in the community, 20,000 acutes and 13,000 serial. Starting in May, the HSE had capacity for 100,000 tests per week, about 30% of which was offshore capacity at the time. Over the summer months, however, it built capacity to 100,000 on-island tests per week. In addition, the HSE has added surge capacity of 2,000 tests per day from our German laboratory partner, which we are very fortunate to have as there is a large and growing demand internationally for such capacity. The HSE continues to forecast demand and is looking at additional kits, robots and methodologies that will increase onshore testing capacity across the winter months. There are always improvements to be made, which we remain very focused on, to ensure consistency in the end-to-end testing process. Referral demand in any area is subject to ongoing review by the HSE and evaluation against available capacity, whether that be in static or pop-up testing centres.

Again, I will bring the Deputies' concerns to the Minister's attention. I thank them for their interest in this very important subject.

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