David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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33. To ask the Minister for Health the steps being taken to ensure a proactive and robust testing and tracing regime to support the plan for living with Covid-19; the way in which Ireland compares with the EU and other comparator states such as New Zealand in terms of testing and tracing capacity and performance by tests per capita; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23640/20]

David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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This question relates to testing and tracing. Testing and tracing are the foundation of getting everything right over the next number of months. We have been asking the Government for some time to ramp up testing and tracing. In fact, the calls we made were rubbished and dismissed by the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste in the past. We now see that we were right and we are paying the price for the fact that we do not have enough capacity. What action is the Government taking to ratchet up capacity in testing and tracing?

Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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This is a very important question because the entire premise of Covid is test, trace and isolate. A comprehensive, reliable and responsive testing and tracing operation is central to our public health strategy.

Capacity has been in place since early summer to test 15,000 people a day. While the system came under pressure in recent weeks, overall the system is working well and is proving central to our public health response. Rigorous contact tracing, automatic testing of close contacts, serial testing in high-risk environments and large-scale testing in outbreak situations mean we are proactively finding more cases than we would have found previously. Today, we learned that there are 357 cases and, unfortunately, three people have lost their lives. I offer my sympathies and condolences to their families.

In recent weeks we have needed to flex resources up significantly as demand has increased. We are testing more people than ever before, with over 71,000 tests completed in the week ending 12 September. Community testing has increased in line with a steady increase in the prevalence of the disease and the HSE has deployed additional resources to meet this increased demand.  This included the opening of additional community testing centres and mobile pop-up testing units, significantly increased contact tracing teams and increased laboratory testing.

Our testing strategy and infrastructure compare well internationally. We are in the top third of EU countries in terms of tests completed as a percentage of the overall population and capacity levels and turnaround times are similar to those of many countries. We are also going further than many other countries in pursuing a robust testing strategy, which includes testing of close contacts and serial testing in nursing homes and food processing facilities.

That is not to say we cannot improve further. We can always improve. I acknowledge that the system has come under strain in recent weeks. The HSE is now finalising a future service model for testing and tracing. The plan includes the recruitment of a permanent workforce, which has already commenced, and a range of other service improvements which will be rolled out quickly. Transition to the new model is under way and will continue throughout the autumn.

David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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The plan announced today will only be effective if we get testing and tracing right. It will not be worth the paper it is written on if the failures of recent times continue. That is not to say testing has not been happening because it has, but it has not been happening at the rates at which it should be happening and it is not quick enough, despite all the promises that were made. We have been calling for this for some time, but those calls have fallen on deaf ears. We saw what happened in meat plants and we see what is happening in Dublin. Testing and tracing must be used to hunt down this virus. The Government said it could reach 100,000 tests per week by the middle of May. It has not done so. Now the Minister of State talks about hiring more staff. Why were the staff not hired last month, two months ago or three months ago when we were raising these concerns in the Dáil? My party leader raised them directly with the Minister of State's party leader. She also raised them with the Tánaiste when he was Taoiseach, with the Minister for Health and with the previous Minister for Health. It is only now that the Government is getting around to providing the extra capacity. It is not good enough and it undermines confidence in the Government.

Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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As I said, 71,000 people were tested last week. We have had to ramp up testing considerably in the last four to six weeks because Covid has changed and is changing. It is more prevalent in communities now. In March, April and into May we were testing many people, but we managed to flatten the curve. The lockdown worked. People stayed at home and did not move further than 2 km from their location. However, as soon as we started to reopen society, Covid returned. Covid is not going anywhere. It is lying dormant and is in our communities. Some 30 community testing sites are open and three pop-up testing sites have been mobilised in Limerick, Tallaght and Carlow-Kilkenny. The Deputy is right that we cannot rest on our laurels. Testing, tracing and isolation are the way forward. It is the only way to flatten this virus. I have no doubt that the Minister will make every effort to ensure we will ramp up capacity wherever it is needed. However, 71,000 people were tested last week.

David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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Testing and tracing are the way to stay ahead of the virus.

Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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Yes.

David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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Of course, when people were in lockdown the numbers were going to go down. My point is that it was pointed out that when the economy started to reopen we would see more community transmission and the virus would look for places to spread. That is what happened. The way to prevent that, because prevention is what we need, is to ratchet up testing and tracing. The Government failed to do it in nursing homes originally, and it failed to do it in meat plants.

The Minister of State may have heard of a cluster in a meat plant in our constituency. She might have seen stories in a local newspaper of a bus packed to the rafters with people going to work. This is what is happening. Testing was not being carried out in these areas. I am holding the Government not to my standard but to the standard it set for itself. It has never done 100,000 tests a week. It is only now telling us that it is recruiting staff on the same day it launched a plan on how to live with the virus. That is simply not good enough.

Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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Testing of staff in nursing homes has been ongoing for the past two months and has proven very effective. As regards the meat factory the Deputy mentioned, I have two family members who have worked there for a very long time and they were tested last Thursday. There was a hullabaloo that there was no testing in meat factories last week, but in Dawn Meats in Grannagh over 800 people were tested last Thursday. We have to deal with the facts. The HSE is adding swabbing capacity in Dublin, Wicklow, Kildare, Louth and Galway. Pop-up testing centres remain in place in Limerick and Carlow and there is additional staffing and longer opening hours in many sites. We must remember that at the start of the pandemic, many front-line workers were redeployed to the test, trace and isolate service because the ordinary person did not understand it. People needed to have a medical background. We know so much more now and permanent people will be put in place. As the virus was suppressed and the curve was flattened, these medical people had to go back into the acute system to deliver non-Covid services.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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Question No. 34 is in the name of Deputy Cullinane again. He was very lucky in the draw.

David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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That is what happens when a party wins 37 seats.