Paddy Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House. It is hard to get everything into two and a half minutes. The Minister has a hard task and I have great sympathy for him. Like Senator Chambers, I also think this should be a justice Bill but, as the Minister has control of health, I presume that is why he is dealing with this legislation.

Like Senator Ward, I have questions to ask in regard to section 31AA. This looks very much like retrospective legislation. I ask the Minister in his summing up to elaborate on this because I would never be in favour of retrospective legislation. I ask the Minister to outline how many fixed penalty points are involved in this retrospective legislation, which is an important point. If we go down the route of retrospective legislation, where will it end in regard to other legislation that has to go before both Houses of the Oireachtas?

The Department is very slow in rolling out antigen testing, which takes place in other countries. We met recently with Aer Lingus pilots, who told us they have been advocating to the Department and the Government in regard to people coming into the country doing a PCR test and that there would be antigen testing at the airport so that, before they left the airport, they would need to have a negative antigen test or they would go straight into quarantine. That has not been rolled out. The Department has been very sceptical about antigen testing, although we read recently that it seems to be going down that road. It is known that other countries use antigen testing in meat plants and in other locations to find out where the problems are. I believe Department of Health staff are using antigen testing and, if that is the case, why is it not being rolled out at airports? Unfortunately, I am out of time.