Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We discussed this in the Chamber before. I do not accept the system collapsed. I absolutely accept that what happened should not have happened. Many people were asked to contact their own close contacts. That is not what we want. I would not see that as the system collapsing, however. In some European countries where cases rose, one essentially saw contact tracing stopping. We did not see it stop, however. It was a one-off event.

It now has the capacity to rapidly contact trace up to 1,500 new cases per day. In the current situation, the highest number was just short of 1,200. It is falling now thanks to the work of people across the country.

I absolutely agree with the Deputy. What needs to happen now, as the numbers come down and when we come out of level 5, is that we must make sure the contact tracing system in place is quick and comprehensive, as well as doing both forward and backward contact tracing for the very reasons the Deputy laid out.

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