Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

If I may say, the issue is that we have 4,500 cases a day. We have expanded the use of antigen testing. The Deputy knows that public health advice has not been very enthusiastic about the wider deployment of antigen testing. Progress has been made. Antigen testing is being used in meat processing plants, nursing homes and third level education and for close contacts. Those tests are being sent out to people. In many ways, we can learn from the UK experience where the wider deployment of antigen testing did not all go to plan. The deployment of antigen testing will be expanded. I take the Deputy's point about a public information campaign and a wider communication campaign. That is what the public health advice was saying as recently as Monday evening. Our public health teams have said, because of the research they have been doing, that there is a need to communicate with the public extensively on the best way to use antigen testing. However, even the expert advisory group is saying it is not a silver bullet. We have dramatically expanded PCR testing. We have done 196,000 PCR tests in the past seven days and tribute should be paid to the HSE and its teams in that regard. People here were lambasting the HSE about PCR testing. Our capacity for PCR testing is now one of the strongest in Europe. That will be supplemented by antigen testing, which will be operational in schools. However, it is not a silver bullet by any means.

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