Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I answered the Deputy's question. I said we had increased border security to have the strictest biosecurity in the European Union, introduced walk-in PCR testing for people with no symptoms in five parts of the country and accelerated the vaccine roll-out. Antigen testing will be coming into play and we are increasing our tracing capacity.

What the Deputy said about the B.1.1.7. variant is a bit disingenuous. Unfortunately, it would have inevitably come into the country. It does not just come through ports and airports. It also comes in, and came in, through Northern Ireland, as did the Spanish strain which contributed to the second wave. Scotland brought in mandatory hotel quarantine for all arrivals over a month ago and has found that it has not been a silver bullet for it. Its case numbers are similar to ours and it has had the same issues as us in relation to a land border.

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