Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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Louth is under threat from the rampant infection of Covid. From the mouth of the River Boyne to the county border in Carlingford, all citizens of County Louth are concerned about Covid because the infection rates are getting higher. There is a disproportionate presence of Covid in the county. For instance, in the Ardee electoral area, there have been fewer than five cases in the past 14 days whereas Dundalk has had over 60 and Drogheda almost 30. We want to support the HSE to ensure testing continues to take place. The fact that the testing centre is being moved from Dundalk to Ardee is a matter of concern which needs to be resolved, however.

Those doing the testing have done a fantastic job. The doctors, nurses and medical staff involved cannot be praised highly enough. They are now being supplemented by new trained swabbers which is important and welcome. On Monday last, testing capacity in Dundalk was 480 with 62 people to be tested. There were no delays. As numbers increase, however, concern also increases. People in Drogheda want to know if they can have a testing centre there. I accept that 37 full-time people will be working on testing in Ardee and it is not possible to have the same number working in Drogheda or Dundalk. That decision has been made. However, can we have a pop-up testing centre in Drogheda if the need arises? In the past week, two new pop-up testing centres were introduced in Dublin, at Croke Park and in Castleknock, and these have capacity to accommodate tests for between 180 and 200 people.

Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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Drogheda urgently needs a Covid-19 testing centre. I thank the 1,307 people who signed a petition on this matter that I launched several days ago. That shows the depth of feeling in the area and the need for a testing centre in Ireland’s largest town.

It is a travesty that Ireland's largest town does not have a Covid-19 testing centre. The population of Drogheda town alone is in excess of 40,000. With its hinterland included, its population is approximately 70,000. The population of Drogheda is larger than the population of counties Leitrim and Longford and is close enough to the population of County Carlow.

Access to quick and safe testing is absolutely crucial for personal and public health, as well as to our economic need. I first made the case for a Covid-19 testing centre in Drogheda back in April but, since then, those calls have fallen on deaf ears. That is not good enough. The system seems to be obsessed with using county boundaries. County boundaries are anachronisms when dealing with a challenge like this. They are certainly an anachronism when one is dealing with a nascent city like Drogheda spread across two local authority areas.

I deal all the time with people in Drogheda being sent for tests in Dundalk. I pay tribute to the medical and lab staff there for their tremendous work. I deal with people in Drogheda who have no option other than to get on public transport to go up the motorway to have a test done in Dundalk, putting themselves and their fellow passengers at risk. They do not want to have to do that. They want to have a safe and accessible test in their own area. If the will is there, as we have seen with the pop-up Covid test centres elsewhere, then this can be done in Drogheda. The truth is that Drogheda needs a Covid-19 test centre and it needs it now.

Frank Feighan (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputies for raising this important issue.

A comprehensive, reliable and responsive testing and tracing operation is central to our public health strategy for containing and slowing the spread of Covid-19. Capacity has been in place since early summer to test 15,000 people a day. While the system did come 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 means we are proactively finding more cases than we would have previously.

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 85,000 tests completed in the past week. Community testing has increased in line with a steady increase in the prevalence of the disease. 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, as well as significantly increased contact tracing teams and increased laboratory testing.

Community testing centres are fully operational seven days a week in Dundalk and in Slane, at the Slane health centre, to serve the population of Louth and Meath combined. They have been offering in excess of 750 appointments on individual days. Persons from Drogheda are currently being referred for testing in Dundalk and Slane. At present, there are no plans for a pop-up testing centre in Drogheda. However, referral demand in any area is subject to ongoing review by the HSE and evaluation against available capacity. Actions are continuously evaluated by the HSE to ensure capacity meets demand, including the extension of opening hours and the addition of testing stations to existing sites.

The HSE advises that current demand nationally and in the Dundalk and Slane centres is being met. This is a clear example of action being taken in the form of a response to demand. On 16 September, for example, 761 appointments were offered across the two facilities, whereas two weeks previously the two centres offered a combined 450 appointments per day, approximately. Further actions, including the standing up of pop-up testing centres, have been initiated in other areas where the above actions were not deemed sufficient to meet demand.

The HSE is now finalising a future service model for testing and tracing. This service model will aim to deliver a patient-centred, accessible, consistent and flexible service. This 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 through the autumn. As part of this, a comprehensive assessment of community testing and swabbing locations is being undertaken. Criteria considered include suitability and sustainability of the location as a long-term testing centre as well as travel times to test centres.

As I said, we are constantly looking to improve further the responsiveness of the testing and tracing system and we will keep demand and capacity under review. I appreciate that the two Deputies have raised the issue of a pop-up Covid-19 testing centre in Drogheda. I will relay those concerns to the Minister as soon as possible.

Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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What is clear now is that the Slane centre is closing. The decision has been made. The Meath test centre is moving, I think, to Dunshaughlin or Ashbourne. The Dundalk centre is moving to Ardee. That is what is happening on the ground. The Dundalk centre is moving to an area equidistant from the two big towns of Drogheda and Dundalk, but that means more people will have to travel farther. I accept that the investment is there, that we must follow it through and that there are 37 full-time jobs there. It does not make sense to have a full-time testing centre in east Meath, one in Drogheda, one in Ardee and one in Dundalk. We have to wear the county jersey. I accept that that means the centre will be in Ardee. That is the decision that has been made. I welcome what the Minister of State is saying. He said that as demand increases, referral demand will be reviewed. I believe we will have - we deserve and must have - a pop-up centre in Drogheda, particularly in view of the fact of the closure of the one in Slane.

I congratulate all the HSE staff and officials on the fantastic work they are doing. Together, all of us in the Houses of the Oireachtas, whether Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Labour, Sinn Féin or Independent, must work together to fight this disease. It is not about more testing. It is about less Covid and getting rid of Covid from our society.

Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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The idea that a testing centre in Dundalk would be closed down and moved to Ardee misses the point entirely. That is splitting the difference. For the sake of good planning we should be making sure that the response is where the service is needed, which in this case is Drogheda. Looking at it on population terms or need terms, an objective case can and should be made to locate a centre of some permanence in Drogheda. The HSE facilities are there and it would not take huge initiative to try to ensure that the resources are allocated to those facilities. Being quick on local testing is critical to beating this condition and making sure that our economy remains open, that people stay in work and that businesses continue to thrive under difficult circumstances. Far too many people are waiting for days for tests while their families remain at home, not at school, and partners and so on have to absent themselves from the workplace.

Money has been no object in the fight against Covid-19. We are borrowing eye-watering sums of money to tackle this condition and we will do the same next year. It is better to plan in advance for a problem we know we will have rather than simply to react to it in a few months' time, when the Minister of State will acknowledge in the House that perhaps we should have established a Covid-19 testing centre in Drogheda. I implore him and the senior Minister to make the right decision now for Drogheda, a decision that makes policy sense.

Frank Feighan (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputies Nash and O'Dowd for their commitment to trying to get a pop-up centre to Drogheda. They have made a very powerful case. As I said, the HSE advises that we are meeting all testing demand nationally across the end-to-end testing and tracing process, with adequate swabbing and laboratory capacity. I understand that these issues will be reviewed, and I will bring the Deputies' concerns to the Minister's attention.

Unlike many other European countries, our testing demand does not currently exceed supply. We are one of a few countries that automatically test close contacts as well as conducting serial testing. We are among the highest ranked in Europe on testing per million of population, having done more testing than Germany, France, Norway, Italy, etc. As I said, the HSE last week did 85,000 tests, our largest number yet: 52,000 in the community, 20,000 acutes and 13,000 serial. Starting in May, the HSE had capacity for 100,000 tests per week, about 30% of which was offshore capacity at the time. Over the summer months, however, it built capacity to 100,000 on-island tests per week. In addition, the HSE has added surge capacity of 2,000 tests per day from our German laboratory partner, which we are very fortunate to have as there is a large and growing demand internationally for such capacity. The HSE continues to forecast demand and is looking at additional kits, robots and methodologies that will increase onshore testing capacity across the winter months. There are always improvements to be made, which we remain very focused on, to ensure consistency in the end-to-end testing process. Referral demand in any area is subject to ongoing review by the HSE and evaluation against available capacity, whether that be in static or pop-up testing centres.

Again, I will bring the Deputies' concerns to the Minister's attention. I thank them for their interest in this very important subject.