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

I outlined the very significant increase in capacity in testing to put it on the record of the House and it needs to be acknowledged. Things need to be viewed with balance and perspective. I am not happy and I am disappointed that because of the extraordinary demand over the weekend given the level of community transmission we currently have, there is not a test-and-tracing system in the world that will not come under pressure, and they are. I have just listened to colleagues of Deputy McDonald's. A similar situation applies in Northern Ireland, the United Kingdom and other EU member states. I think we are about 11th highest in testing capacity in the world. I do not want to go into league tables or anything like that, but our testing capacity is high. The contact tracing is under pressure. We are recruiting very fast. There are procedures to be followed in recruiting. We have been recruiting contacting tracers since August. I want to ensure, as we outlined in our plan, that we get to our target. Overall, we had a figure of about 3,000 people from the labs right through in our own test-and-tracing permanent workforce. That is the target we set ourselves when the new Government was established and we are on track to do that.

I have no difficulty in weekly reporting, nor does the HSE. It already outlines the number of tests and so on that it conducts.

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