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

The testing has been dramatically scaled up recently. Contact tracing is coming under tremendous pressure because of the high level of community transmission of the virus and the number of positive cases that have emerged. The HSE is saying it has reconfigured the call structure to enable it to deal with 1,500 positive cases per day this week. That is what the HSE is saying as of now. Members referred to what other countries are doing and I believe other testing technologies should be considered. HIQA conducted a major study on this, which has been clinically validated in terms of antigen testing and rapid testing by public health. I hope we can get early reports on it so that by the end of this lockdown, we can supplement the existing testing technology with additional testing technology. That is important in terms of dealing with the situation.

There have been policy differences on the efficacy of such tests for quite some time. I have made it clear that we are willing to implement this, but we need the clinical evaluation of these technologies. France, Portugal, Greece and other countries are doing this and it could be useful. It will never replace polymerase chain reation, PCR, testing on its own, but it could complement and support our endeavours, particularly in certain settings where we want activities to continue.

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