Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 20 May 2021
85. Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science if he will provide an update on the roll-out of rapid antigen testing in third-level colleges which will facilitate the return of students to on-campus learning; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26441/21]
View answerI wish to ask the Minister for an update in relation to the rapid antigen testing roll-out across our universities. I understand that the Minister has been speaking about the issue for a number of months, as have I and a number of other Deputies. I am eager to see progress on the matter. I ask the Minister to provide us with details on the roll-out, looking ahead to September 2021.
I thank the Deputy for raising this matter, as he has done on a number of occasions. I want to assure him that like the whole of Government, I am absolutely committed to a significant increase in on-site attendance in the further and higher education sectors in the next academic year. We all know the reasons why students have had to attend online this year. They have been well rehearsed and based on public health evidence. However, we are also aware that it cannot be repeated. It is not a sustainable situation to be in from an educational point of view, but more importantly, from a well-being perspective. Our young people, in particular, need to be back in college. It has been a hell of a long time since first-year students actually had on-site access to education, considering they left school - sixth year - in March 2020.
My Department has established a working group. It includes students, the unions, the representative bodies, NGOs and educational institutions. The working group will prepare a plan for the new academic year. It is due to meet again tomorrow to discuss the issue. I will publish a plan for the new semester in June.
Rapid antigen testing will form a part of that plan, but it is only one part of a package of measures that could support greater on-site activity. A rapid testing study - pilots, as it were - will be rolled out across four universities this month: TCD, UCC, UCD and NUI Galway. This will help us learn more about the potential role that rapid antigen can play in the further and higher education sector. More broadly, perhaps those lessons can also be shared with other sectors.
My Department is also participating in a HSE antigen testing pilot working group which is working with the HSE on the piloting of antigen testing in the education sector, including at third level. I am excited about antigen testing and eager to get the rapid testing pilots under way. They are starting this month. There is a commitment of funding of over €1 million from my Department. However, I want to be clear that rapid antigen testing is only one of the tools at our disposal. The return to campus this autumn is not dependent on such testing.
The adoption of detailed procedures and guidelines encompassing public health advice has played a central role in ensuring that essential and time-critical on-site activity could take place this year. We now want to expand that advice and to use the benefits of the vaccination programme to get our students and staff back to campus in September and October.
It is great to see that progress is being made. Hopefully, that will ensure that there is an on-site return of students in September. That is welcome. I welcome the fact that rapid antigen testing will just be part of that. I take what the Minister has said and I know that he has been a proponent of antigen testing for a long time. It is not a criticism of him specifically, but I believe that as a Government, we can do much more. The dogs on the street know the pros and cons of rapid antigen testing. It is not as accurate as PCR testing. We understand that. However, at the same time, looking at other developed countries, whether it is the UK or across Europe, there are hundreds of thousands of people who are subject to rapid testing every week. The use of it across the Continent is identifying hundreds of thousands of cases when people are at their most infectious state.
Given that come September the majority of adults here will be vaccinated, please God, in time for universities to return, if there is any delay in the vaccination roll-out it is most likely to affect third level students given that they are from younger age cohorts. Therefore, it is imperative that we roll out that rapid antigen testing as quickly as possible. While a pilot is welcome, we need to consider the roll-out of the testing in all third level institutions.
I am a major proponent of at least trying rapid testing. It would be weird if the Minister responsible for research and science was not, given that the chief scientific adviser to our country and to me and Science Foundation Ireland are so clear in relation to this matter. I simply think that we do not have anything to lose by trying it, particularly as a surveillance method. I very much take the points that our medical experts and doctors make. As the Deputy said, rapid testing is not PCR testing. No one is suggesting that it is. However, it is another tool to be used in the monitoring and surveillance of a virus that can rapidly change and evolve. We have seen benefits of its use in other jurisdictions.
Our intention is to roll out these pilots this month. That work is under way and the funding is in place. If there is a benefit to the testing, we will expand the programme. If there is not, what is the loss? That is the way we must approach science and research. We try things and learn from them. If they work, we expand them.
We are going to get the students back to college through a combination of potential rapid testing, the vaccination programme and also the application of good public health guidance and any resources that are needed to go alongside that. Those are the three legs of the stool. We are getting students and staff back to campus in the new academic year. It is essential. The Taoiseach could not have been clearer when he addressed the nation on this matter at the end of April.
The Joint Committee on Health heard a very good presentation yesterday on ventilation. Dr. Orla Hegarty was really excellent.
