Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Yes. In April, on the back of the report produced by the National Civil Aviation Development Forum, the Minister of State, Deputy Hildegarde Naughton, wrote to the Taoiseach and all Government Ministers, including the Minister for Health, promoting the recommendations of that report, which also made the case for using antigen testing on a trial basis. In public and internally, I have been completely supportive of Professor Ferguson's approach with regard to the benefits of antigen testing for screening.

I watched with interest reports on the committee hearing yesterday. We will sit down with the Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Holohan, and work on whether he is willing to introduce such tests, as requested. We will work with him and make that happen straight away. It will be with the Chief Medical Officer's support, however. We must get public health measures right in this regard. Throughout this crisis, we have been testing every option and listening to the health officials as they came back. We have looked at all these options.

See this speech in context