Joe Carey (Clare, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State and I welcome his interest in trying to bring about a resolution. Every effort must be made. He has to set out a timeline to achieve those target waiting periods of ten weeks. I am encouraged by his comment that even that is not acceptable and that it needs to be reviewed. We need testers in place to reduce the number of people who are waiting. There is a particular issue on the west coast, particularly in County Clare, regarding the availability of testers to carry out the tests. The waiting periods there are longer and that is why I have asked for the numbers that are waiting in each test area, as well as for the numbers of testers who have been allocated to each test centre.

In the Minister of State’s initial reply, he stated that the RSA will redeploy to areas where there are longer waiting lists. If he has those figures for County Clare, he might outline them.

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