I will indeed ask the HSE to produce a roadmap on testing. It may have done that already. There are lots of documents being developed all the time and lots of drafts that people will be aware of, but that would be a useful thing for the HSE to do and I will certainly take that up with the HSE CEO. On the Deputy's final point, there are about 40 laboratories now that can test for Covid. I have not heard of any being prohibited from testing nursing homes samples. Perhaps that is the case but I cannot confirm it is th…

The Deputy is absolutely right: the quicker we can turn around the tests, the better we can do on contact tracing. I should point out, however, that contact tracing can and does start before the tests come back, so if somebody is a suspected case, the contact tracing can be started even before the test comes back. That is what is commonly done in South Korea and other jurisdictions.

The Deputy is absolutely right in his initial comments that businesses need money to restart. That is why rates are being waived for three months and businesses can reclaim their rates from 2019. Businesses that are reopening can claim up to €10,000 worth of their rates from 2019, so it is effectively a rates rebate. Some 80% of businesses in Ireland pay less than €10,000 a year in rates so this is particularly advantageous for those small shops and businesses that we all want to see up and running really quickly b…

I thank the Deputy. I am very aware of the difficulties our fishermen and fisherwomen are facing at the moment. I had a conversation with the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Creed, about that particular matter in the past couple of days. He, with his European colleagues, is working on a solution that can assist them at this particularly difficult time. Obviously, anything relating to conversations on forming a Government are a matter for the parties and not a matter for the Dáil just yet.

I thank the Deputy. As is often the case, the Deputy suggested two new stand-alone Ministries but did not enlighten us as to which two stand-alone Ministries he would wish to abolish to make that possible. The Constitution provides for a maximum of 15 senior Ministers, and only 15. I would be interested to know whether it is rural affairs, agriculture, children and youth affairs or which Ministries Deputy Collins would wish to abolish. He may wish to tell us. In terms of the airport forms, they are not yet mandator…

I confess that I have not yet read the letter to which the Deputy referred. I am sure she appreciates that I receive thousands of individual items of correspondence to my office every week and it is not possible for me to read them all. If the Deputy wishes to pass on privately the correspondent's name and address, I will check out his letter and ensure he receives a proper reply. In terms of the voice of disability, we have a Minister of State, Finian McGrath, at the Cabinet table who is responsible for disability…

There is nobody on NPHET who is a voice for a particular subgroup in society, whether women or men, business people or workers, people with disabilities, older people or younger people. That is not how NPHET-----

Decisions are made by Government, not by NPHET. The latter advises Government. At the Cabinet table there is a Minister of State whose responsibility is disability. He is the voice on these matters. Where NPHET acts entirely independently of Government it is on those matters that are solely matters of public health such as the clinical criteria for testing and so on. Political decisions are made by Government. In regard to planning, there is a national emergency plan and a pandemic plan. As the Deputy rightly point…

The wearing of face masks and face coverings is still very much a matter of scientific debate. Some scientists speak about it with great certainty, but within the expert advisory group, the National Public Health Emergency Team, NPHET, the World Health Organization, WHO, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, ECDC, and the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC, one hears different advice because there is not a scientific consensus on this matter. The research that has been done has largely…

On Thursday, 23 April, I joined other members of the European Council by video conference to discuss the coronavirus emergency and to chart a path towards economic and social recovery. This is the fourth such meeting, with previous meetings having taken place on 10, 17 and 26 March. I welcome the opportunity to provide an account of these meetings to the Dáil and to exchange views and ideas with Members. Sadly, when this emergency started, the level of co-ordination across the European Union was poor. Member states…

Not just yet, a Cheann Comhairle.

Mar a tharlaíonn ar laethanta eile, smaoinímid inniu orthu siúd a fuair bás, daoine a raibh saol agus scéalta acu agus ar bhain tábhacht agus brí lena saolta. Cuimhneofar orthu. Tá an Rialtas buíoch de chuile dhuine atá ag obair go dian chun dul i ngleic leis an gcoróinvíreas. Tá siad ag glacadh a bpáirte sa ghéarchéim seo. Má tá daoine ag glacadh páirte tríd a gcuid oibre nó má tá siad ag fanacht sa bhaile, tá torthaí ar ár gcomhiarracht agus táimid ag cur an aicíd faoi chois. Tá a fhios agam go bhfuil na teorainn…

I counted more than that, a Cheann Comhairle, but I will get straight into answering them. On the question about the roadmap for reopening Ireland and the roadmap to a new normal, I confirm it is our intention to share that with the public tomorrow, but that is subject to the outcome of a National Public Health Emergency Team, NPHET, meeting in the morning and subject to a Cabinet meeting in the afternoon, so it is not entirely under my control. The target capacity for testing is 100,000 a week. I emphasise it is t…

I thank the Deputy. There is no big reveal here. This has been on the record for days if not weeks. The target is to have the capacity to carry out 100,000 tests per week and to do so within a good turnaround time. We are not going to carry out random testing just to hit a figure of 100,000. The target is not to carry out 100,000 tests. It is to carry out as many tests as are necessary. We believe that we need a capacity of 100,000 to be able to do that. If we ever carry out random testing, it will be through a ser…

-----HIQA which goes through that in detail. However, we may have-----

Roche Diagnostics may have done so as well. However, they have not done so yet. I want to answer Deputy McDonald's question. The Deputy did not leave any time to ask any.

We may get to the point in the next couple of weeks or months where a company produces a serological test which works, in which case we will raise the 100,000 figure to a much higher one. However, that test does not exist yet. The number of tests is based, as always, on the clinical criteria.

I do support the proposal to have corona bonds. That is not a secret. I think I said that a week or two ago. Everyone should know that. It is essentially a mechanism by which we would collectivise European debt solely for the purpose of paying for the cost of the crisis. It could be just health spending or go beyond that to include the money necessary to re-stimulate the economy. As anyone familiar with European issues will know, that would require a change to the European treaties. It is highly unlikely that is go…

I thank the Deputy but I am afraid I do not have the details of that. That is new information to me so I will have to check up on it but as far as I understand it, anyone is entitled to access the provisions of the Unfair Dismissals Act. That is a law that applies to all workers and obviously there are sick pay and sick leave arrangements in place for everyone at the moment who needs to take time off, particularly as a consequence of Covid-19 but I will certainly check that and come back to the Deputy with a writte…

Just to go back to what the Deputy mentioned earlier, NPHET has agreed to publish the minutes of its meetings and its advice to Government is already published. In terms of the expert advisory group, that is not advice that I ever see and it is not in my possession. There may or may not be reasons it can or cannot publish it. The CMO is the best person to answer that question. There was a good debate on the leaving certificate in the Chamber last week, and the vast majority of Members who spoke from most parties, f…