Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am a major proponent of at least trying rapid testing. It would be weird if the Minister responsible for research and science was not, given that the chief scientific advisor to our country and to me and Science Foundation Ireland are so clear in relation to this matter. I simply think that we do not have anything to lose by trying it, particularly as a surveillance method. I very much take the points that our medical experts and doctors make. As the Deputy said, rapid testing is not PCR testing. No one is suggesting that it is. However, it is another tool to be used in the monitoring and surveillance of a virus that can rapidly change and evolve. We have seen benefits of its use in other jurisdictions.

Our intention is to roll out these pilots this month. That work is under way and the funding is in place. If there is a benefit to the testing, we will expand the programme. If there is not, what is the loss? That is the way we must approach science and research. We try things and learn from them. If they work, we expand them.

We are going to get the students back to college through a combination of potential rapid testing, the vaccination programme and also the application of good public health guidance and any resources that are needed to go alongside that. Those are the three legs of the stool. We are getting students and staff back to campus in the new academic year. It is essential. The Taoiseach could not have been clearer when he addressed the nation on this matter at the end of April.

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