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

There are a wide range of questions. First, regarding the original question asked by Deputy Ó Murchú about antigen testing, HIQA produced a major study on this. It has been clinically validated now. I asked again for a report from it through the oversight committee which asked this morning if it could have the report next week in terms of how that is progressing. I am being candid with the Deputy. There has been a policy issue here. Many people on the public health side were not, in the early stages, convinced about the effectiveness or validity of antigen testing. Other countries have adopted it. I mentioned that in an earlier exchange. I am interested in seeing if antigen testing can be an important complement to PCR testing and if it could help in certain settings. When this is clinically validated vis-à-visPCR and get outcomes, hopefully, we can get some results and some clear trajectory on the direction of travel in terms of the utilisation of antigen testing more quickly than I had been told earlier. That applies to all the questions asked by other Deputies as well.

On the specific cases mentioned by Deputies Murnane O'Connor and Buckley, if the Deputies send me the details, I can talk to the HSE about them. The HSE is meeting all testing demand and 95% of tests are done within the time limits. The contact tracing system came under enormous pressure last week. We are now doing 115,000 tests, as Deputy Danny Healy-Rae mentioned. We now rank 11th highest in the world for testing. We are testing a lot, far more than we tested before.

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