Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 12 November 2020
1. Deputy Darren O'Rourke asked the Minister for Transport his plans for Covid-19 testing facilities at ports and airports; the form of testing that will be used; the cost travellers will face; if it will be in place before Christmas; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35955/20]
View answerI wish to again raise the issue of testing and tracing for passengers arriving at ports and airports. Could the Minister please update the House on the type of testing that will be put in place? Will it be polymerase chain reaction, PCR, or another type? What will the cost of testing be? How many tests will each major port and airport be able to carry out daily? What will be the timeframe involved? There is some indication that testing will start today at Cork and Shannon airports. When will testing be up and running elsewhere?
The plan for living with Covid-19 and the Government decision of 20 October both affirm that any testing model implemented for international travel should not impinge on HSE testing capacity. In light of this, any testing for international travel will need to draw on resources from the private sector, which are not being accessed by the HSE.
The testing regime envisaged under the Government decision for international travel will be implemented through the private supply of testing availability in Ireland. This will include: testing post arrival, from day five, for passengers from EU orange or red list locations; and testing for departing passengers who need or wish to complete a pre-departure test requirement before travelling to another country.
Subject to the ongoing review of testing by the National Public Health Emergency Team, NPHET, and the Government, a Covid-19 PCR test is currently the only test that is accepted for the purposes of allowing the advice relating to restricted movement to be waived. Testing technology and delivery options for facilitating international travel will be kept under review, including loop-mediated isothermal amplification, LAMP, and antigen testing.
Shannon and Cork airports have indicated that drive-through testing will be available today for passengers and the public. The Dublin Airport Authority, DAA, has indicated that the provision of testing at Dublin Airport by private providers can be increased within weeks. Testing at Dublin Airport will be undertaken by two providers by means of a drive-through facility and a walk-through facility at the airport. The DAA has advised that the testing offer by the providers will be reasonably priced, within what is generally available on the market. As there can be no certainty that capacity will be available to meet all possible requirements, intending passengers who wish to avail of testing should seek an appointment before travelling.
It is an unfolding situation. Many people are looking towards Christmas and want to know what testing regime will be in place. How does the Government plan to advise people on foreign travel for the Christmas period? Some 1.2 million people travelled through Dublin Airport during the Christmas period last year. That is a significant number. There is a demand for people to come home to Ireland and for people to travel abroad to their home countries for Christmas. What advice can the Minister of State give to people at this stage? How will travel be managed and constrained, if that is what is intended? The current position is that there should be no non-essential travel. The public health advice is quite clear. This is a dynamic situation and it is changing, but we know that NPHET has been quite consistent with the public health advice. I do not see it changing significantly, but I ask how the Government intends to manage the demand that will exist and to balance it with the public health advice.
As Deputy O'Rourke is aware, we are listening to the advice of NPHET at the moment. We are at level 5. We have aligned ourselves with the EU traffic-light approach. People who come to this country from a red-list country will be asked to restrict their movements for 14 days. After five days, they can avail of PCR tests here. Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports and the private sector will be rolling out testing facilities. Travellers coming from orange list countries will be asked to take a test three days in advance of travelling. If they do not do that, they can also avail of the test here within five days, as per red list passengers. Again, it is about people taking personal responsibility when they come here and adhering to the local public health advice.
Regarding some of the expected volumes, the DAA testing plan across Dublin and Cork airports has estimated the volume to be approximately 150 tests per day, ramping up to a total of 300 tests per day towards the end of the year. The DAA has also identified capacity in the private sector testing market of up to 12,000 PCR tests per day.
Coming back to the challenge at Christmas, the testing capacity will not be in place to test everybody who arrives in the country if the testing capacity is 150 per day. At this stage, if someone is planning for Christmas, is the Government maintaining the position that people should seriously consider planning for a different type of Christmas? Is the Government suggesting that people should give serious consideration to whether they need to travel at all if they have an alternative to stay where they are? If very large numbers of people come back to the country, that will have significant public health implications, particularly as the passenger locator form and the testing regime are not entirely adequate.
Deputy O'Rourke raises a very valid point. Whatever we do at national level with the health protocols, there is a level of responsibility on anyone who is planning to travel here for essential work or who is returning home for Christmas to visit family, relatives and friends.
It is in our interests to ensure that we act responsibly, that such persons take a PCR test in advance if they are coming from an orange-listed country and again after five days for people coming from a red-listed country. We need to await the advice. We do not know where we will be with this virus, which is moving in a positive direction. The Deputy can be assured that the high-level governmental group will be watching international travel and will be working with the CMO on the travel advice. For people who are travelling, the DAA has established a webpage with details of airport testing availability. I ask passengers to look at that as well as gov.ie for the advice the Government will be giving.
