Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle) | Oireachtas source

That concludes Questions on Promised Legislation. With the discretion of the House, I will make a brief comment on the earlier, rather unseemly, situation around antigen testing by bringing the House up to speed with what has happened today. We had a meeting of the Business Committee at 11 o'clock today, as we always do. The service brought a proposal to the Business Committee on antigen testing. The reason it brought it is that last week we had nine cases in the Houses of the Oireachtas. That was four times the previous incidence of infection and that included one likely on-site transmission. On a sitting day we have, on average, 800 people circulating in this building through narrow corridors and tight circulation areas. Going on the national statistics, that means there are about eight people at any one time on a sitting day moving around here who have Covid but are not symptomatic, so the service brought a proposal to introduce antigen testing.

We are employers here of more than 1,200 people, who use this as their base. The matter was discussed by the Business Committee. In terms of the staffing, the view was that the antigen tests should be made available from existing House resources to staff members free of charge. The suggested proposal under discussion was that Members of the House should be encouraged to have antigen tests, to acquire the test packs outside the House or, if they require them here, that they should pay for them. That is the situation. I would be grateful if Deputy Ó Cathasaigh could confirm that.

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