Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I asked a few questions that the Taoiseach did not answer. I respect his point that he got this information by text, which is extraordinary. I do not believe the public would know about this were it not forThe Irish Times. Were it not for Simon Carswell and Jack Horgan-Jones, we would not be talking about this issue this morning. That needs to be looked into. Will the Taoiseach inform the House when the Minister found out about this?

The running of the test and trace system needs to be in some way separated from the HSE because it has enough to do. We have to be honest about this. When I say it needs to be separated, the real issue is that end-to-end testing and tracing in the community takes 4.1 days, not 2.2 days as the Taoiseach keeps saying. While there are quick turnaround times in the hospital and GP settings, turnaround times in the community are way out by comparison. This is why we need it separated.

Members of the public are watching proceedings. The Garda vetting unit in my constituency is very efficient and, in fairness, it is prioritised when it is needed by Government. There are hundreds of thousands of competent people out there, including retired public servants, people who have worked in various organisations and jobs and those who have been made unemployed, who could have been recruited in recent months.

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