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

I thank the Deputies for the issues they have raised. The committee deals with Europe and we have a separate Cabinet subcommittee on Covid-19, which deals with all aspects of that. This committee meets to discuss broader European issues, specifically in preparation for European Council meetings. The most important response of the European Council and member states to Covid-19 has been the multilateral financial framework and the next generation EU funding programme, which is unprecedented in that European member states decided, on advice from the Commission, to act collectively to borrow money on the markets to support member states which are under particular pressure as a result of Covid-19 and to underpin them. This type of solidarity manifests itself in terms of giving resources to member states to enable them to deliver on social solidarity domestically. Under the EU institutional rules, of course, this has to get the approval of the European Parliament and there is ongoing trilateral dialogue between the Parliament, Council and Commission. I made the case that it needs to be accelerated.

The European Parliament has its demands and objectives and I say to Deputies who have party members in the European Parliament that the overriding consideration is to get this package through so the funding can start to be distributed and delivered to enable supports to be given to people. In Ireland we are borrowing at very low interest rates at present. We are not necessarily dependent on the borrowing capacity that these funds will afford us, although we will utilise the SURE fund, as the Minister for Finance has said, in respect of borrowing to support the pandemic unemployment payment and the wage subsidy scheme payments. This is the most fundamental response.

On Covid, the European response has been predominantly on the vaccine and the advance purchase agreement, which has been a good development. In previous potential pandemics, such as SARS, Europe was not co-ordinated on vaccine procurement. Developing that type of co-operation was quite embryonic. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control is providing much advice to Europe. Europe has developed a proposal on co-ordination on travel.

As I stated earlier when responding to Deputy Ó Murchú in respect of the testing technologies, Europe is pursuing whether we can get a co-ordinated approach to the various technologies that different member states are using for testing. Most do PCR but there are other tests such as antigen and so on. The quarantining frameworks that should apply are also being examined.

I read a very interesting article about testing in Germany. It uses a network of private laboratories for testing. The state has an overarching protocol and a network of private laboratories throughout the country has been utilised for its testing regime. The Deputy's central thesis, therefore-----

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