Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise national as well as local topics. The Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Tony Holohan, was before the transport committee yesterday. He is fully supportive of a pilot rapid antigen testing programme for the aviation sector. The Minister of State wrote to Ministers on 11 May. We would have written to the Minister and the Department on 6 May with a specific request on a rapid antigen testing pilot programme for the aviation sector.

That was over a month ago, as was the Minister of State’s letter. We could have covered a pilot test scheme in that time. As a matter of urgency, we now need to move at speed as we now know that the CMO, Dr. Holohan, and NPHET are now supportive of a rapid antigen testing programme being set up. This will require logistics.

We need to move from the abstract to putting this in place. It will require engagement from NPHET. I ask the Minister of State to pick up the phone and ring the Dr. Tony Holohan and start discussing with NPHET how this can be put in place. The airline industry needs to be contacted as it will have to be part of this rapid antigen test pilot programme. These are the two key players.

The type of test that we will be using then needs to be decided upon, as well as the routes that will be used. The UK is already looking at this and has the information technology, IT, systems in place. We need then a rapid antigen pilot testing programme established straightaway and not in a complicated fashion but with the correct metrics. We then need to run it in line with the introduction of the digital green certificate here in Ireland on 19 July. That is just over four weeks away. This is a serious amount of time when one is trying to get work done but it can be eroded very quickly if nothing is done. I ask the Minister of State to address where NPHET want to see the evidence and validation and this can be done through a pilot programme.

Furthermore, the report of Professor Ferguson of the Covid-19 rapid antigen group needs to be seriously considered by all Departments and by NPHET itself. It is a worthwhile document.

I want to move on to Shannon Airport, my local airport. It is critical that any supports that are given to companies such as Aer Lingus, and it will need supports, must have built into them the issue of regional connectivity, the Shannon-Heathrow slot and that the transatlantic routes will continue out of Shannon.

Second, we must expedite the appointment of a chair for the board of Shannon Group. That is critical. We need somebody to head this body.

Third, we need to see the review of Shannon Airport that has been ongoing within the Department for quite some time brought to a conclusion. Shannon Airport is vital to our region. We need to see it up and running. We see where Stobart Air were flying routes but were not flying existing routes out of Shannon. We need to reconnect those routes through Aer Lingus or other providers.

At this stage it is all systems go and we need to see absolute progress in getting down to the nuts and bolts of putting on place a pilot testing programme for aviation. This is about picking up the phone and ringing the airlines, Dr. Tony Holohan and NPHET, to forming a working group to say what we have to do now and to roll this out with immediate effect. The antigen tests are on the market, are there and are being used by the HSE on outbreaks as matters stand. The products are there and it is about putting the metrics in place and doing it in rapid-speed time in line with rapid antigen testing in order that we can be up and running around 19 July, aiming at that date as our target, or shortly thereafter.

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