The unparalleled scale of PCR testing in Ireland – to the exclusion of antigen testing – has led to astronomical costs being incurred. Government must explain why we had so much, and such expensive, PCR testing and stalled antigen testing despite an expert report calling for it.
Article – THE SUN
I asked the Taoiseach why the HSE has been keeping at least 1.5 million antigen tests in storage and has only dispatched 35,000 (2%) to date. The Government decision not to distribute them for free is inexplicable.
Figures c/o @RachelLavin https://www.businesspost.ie/coronavirus/hse-sitting-on-stock-of-15-million-antigen-tests-8f55c87e
The Government’s use of Dáil time today to tell us about reopening the tourism and aviation sectors never addressed the significant deterrents that exist for international tourists.
I asked Junior Transport Minister Hildegarde Naughton why the medical advice being obtained by the Department of Transport is so clearly different from the medical advice being given to the European Commission and other member states.
Given the establishment of another task force on Shannon and the failure to implement previous reports on aviation and on antigen testing, I asked the Taoiseach who’s running the country and for whose benefit.
NPHET’s confirmation that it hasn’t even discussed the Government-commissioned Report of the Covid Rapid Testing Group and its reluctance to accept the EU Commission’s common list of COVID-19 rapid antigen tests demonstrate an intent to maintain Ireland’s outlier position on international travel and antigen testing compared to other EU states.
Antigen testing will be a key tool when Ireland begins to reopen, and the EU Commission, EU Health Committee and U.S. CDC have already promoted the useful role of such testing.
The Government must expand the use of rapid antigen tests, which can detect when people with COVID-19 are infectious as opposed to the detection of persons who are no longer infectious.
Testing at our airports while unrestricted access to Northern Ireland and across the border is maintained is like trying to keep the cold out of the house by closing all the windows but leaving the front door open.
A rapid antigen test that people can do at home themselves offers huge potential benefits as an addition, not an alternative, to other measures.
I raised the issue of testing at airports and NPHET’s insistence that only PCR testing is acceptable. Airports in other EU countries are using rapid antigen testing.
7 months after I first raised airport testing, it’s time to stop discussing options and start implementing solutions.
Reacting to the news that Ryanair is to close its bases in Cork and Shannon for the winter, Independent TD Michael McNamara has said the Government needs to introduce a system of rapid testing at airports in the short term and must also develop a new State aviation policy to ensure international transit carriers do not fly exclusively into Dublin.
Read MoreI asked Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan to provide an update on the progress made by Government on the introduction of a testing protocol at Irish airports and about what type of test system would be used.
Addressing Taoiseach Leo Varadkar in Dáil Éireann this afternoon, I proposed the testing of outbound passengers at Shannon Airport as a means to reopen the aviation gateway to North America. The economy of our region depends on Shannon.