Paddy Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The conclusion the Government has come to is that there is no danger in people being outdoors. That is an aspect to be considered.

I support what Senator Kyne said. We met pilots and people from the travel industry today. They are going through a very difficult period. On one hand that is an issue but, on the other hand, our tourism industry could suffer greatly. As has been said on numerous occasions, as an island nation we need air transport and connectivity. Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece and all those countries are opening up but we are not opening up to the same degree. We must have a plan in the short term, as we need to open up by 1 July, certainly for travel. We can see most of the hotels in Dublin are closed. The pilots are adamant that antigen testing could be of great benefit to them and to that industry. It is being used all over the world but the National Public Health Emergency Team does not seem to have any great confidence in it and one would wonder why. Many Members of this and the other House have put forward that antigen testing should be used more. I certainly agree with it, even if it catches only one person. We have the farcical situation where those in the Department of Health are going to the airport to get antigen testing done. That is what we have been told but antigen testing cannot be used at the airport. Those are matters we should discuss in greater detail and at more length because, as Senator McDowell said, this House has failed. It is not only this Bill but several Bills we have debated in detail. The debate on the previous Bill was guillotined. I am not in favour of guillotining debate but in some cases it must be used, for example, when there is an emergency but there is no great emergency here at times. We should consider that aspect. We should debate such matters in great detail.