Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal, Labour)
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191. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the number of passengers travelling into Ireland that have booked Covid-19 tests at airports here; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43380/20]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The Government decision of 20 October affirms that any testing model implemented for international travel should not impinge on HSE testing capacity. In light of this, the State Airports have facilitated the location of private testing providers at Cork, Shannon and Dublin Airports. The testing facilities in question are open to any member of the public requesting a Covid-19 test, whether travelling or not.

Neither the State Airports nor my Department have any operational role in the provision of the testing services.

The daa facilitates two commercial companies – Randox and RocDoc - to operate separate Covid-19 testing facilities at Dublin and Cork airports. RocDoc provide services at Shannon Airport also. These testing service providers have advised daa and the Shannon Airport Authority concerning headline figures for testing to date and projected bookings leading up to Christmas, including pre-departures, post-arrivals tests and other non-travel tests.

There have been over 5,000 bookings for Covid-19 tests across both testing service providers since testing facilities opened in November at Cork Airport and at Dublin Airport. The testing service providers expect circa 800 bookings per day between now and the Dec 20th, increasing to circa 1,700 bookings on the expected busiest travel day, December 23rd. In the region of 500 Covid-19 tests have been carried out by the private testing provider located at Shannon Airport.

It should be noted that the estimated figures I have provided do not reflect the full extent of Covid-19 testing for prospective arriving (or departing) passengers, given that many other commercial providers outside of the airport’s testing facilities also provide such services.