On the abandonment of PCR testing for the majority of the population, as has been said, the vast majority of people with symptoms who need a test will have to pay €90 privately to have it done. Many medically vulnerable groups, who have written and accounted for this in a letter to the Department, are worried about the abandonment of most measures like mask-wearing, testing and tracing. What new systems will be put in place to track the virus as fewer people are going to be tested for it? It has been reported in the papers that new systems will be put in place, but there is no explanation as to what those systems will be. Is the State proposing to abandon tracking the virus in its entirety and at all costs?

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. The Chief Medical Officer is very clear that we have to move to a different phase of the pandemic, that the wholesale testing and tracing regime will no longer apply during the transitionary period and that we have to embed into our existing public health system permanent responses and surveillance of the disease and other diseases. The Sentinel system, for example, which is a GP-based system, will be expanded. We already agreed last year to double the allocation of funding to public health in this country, leading to first-time consultant appointments and also a strengthening of the personnel capacity within public health. I understand the recruitment has gone well in respect of that. That whole public health system will be key in the surveillance and monitoring of diseases as we go forward.

That is just words. That is not an answer to the question.

I was asked-----

The Taoiseach did not explain what will be done instead of testing.

Please, Deputy Murphy. I call Deputy Tóibín.