Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister. I welcome the Bill and will of course support it. I have said that I would have liked it to go a bit further but I appreciate that it is being introduced and it cannot be passed too soon.

Part of how we tackle and suppress the virus involves international travel. Our testing regime will be an important part of how we suppress the virus. I want to extol the benefits of rapid antigen testing and the important role it could play in getting to a point where we can suppress the virus and once again open up society. It is fast, cheap and effective and can be a significant tool in slowing down and stopping transmission in offices, nursing homes, building sites, factories and schools. We need to explore that option more closely and roll it out. I am not asking for it to replace PCR testing but I ask that we use it in conjunction with such testing because it can help to identify pockets of the disease and help us stop them from spreading.

I also want to take this opportunity to speak about the roll-out of vaccines and vaccinations at home. Unfortunately, some elderly and vulnerable members of our societies and communities simply cannot make the journey from their homes to their GPs to be vaccinated. I know of a 94-year-old woman who suffers from severe dementia. The ordeal of being transferred from her home to a GP for a vaccination is too much and would have a significant negative impact on her. There are issues with transporting vaccines and they have to be kept at a certain temperature. People cannot wait for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which would solve such issues, to come on board. Can the Minister consider vaccinations at home and some method of bringing vaccines to elderly and vulnerable people in our community who cannot make a journey to a local GP because of the impact it would have on their health?

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