I was not going to talk about this publicly, but I recently had Covid. I would not advise anyone to catch it. It is not particularly enjoyable. However, I discovered from my experience the real benefits of antigen tests. In recent weeks I have talked to other people who have also had Covid, and this is only anecdotal evidence, but they spoke about the benefit of antigen tests to them. Having been through this, I think a real disservice to the country was done by the comments a year ago that antigen tests were "snake oil" and by the reluctance of NPHET to endorse them sooner. Again, I speak only from my anecdotal evidence and from talking to other people. I was absolutely fine, not a breeze whatsoever, one morning. I got a phone call from someone to say I was potentially a close contact. That individual was absolutely fine but, because I got that phone call, I took an antigen test, got a positive result and was able to go straight into self-isolation. Because I was able to do so, and I live at home with my family of five, nobody else got infected because I did not spend the two days wandering around meeting people until symptoms developed. That was all because of antigen testing. I have spoken to so many other friends and colleagues who have also had Covid recently who have said exactly the same thing. I refer to people on the bus into work who had a small cough or a small headache, decided to take an antigen test, got a positive result, went straight into isolation, waited for a PCR test and, when the PCR test result came, all of a sudden realised that symptoms were coming on at that stage. It just shows the benefit of antigen testing and how useful it is. It is great to see we are on it now and it is being used widely, but a real disservice has been done to this country by not getting on board with antigen testing sooner.

You got a lot into two minutes, Senator McGahon.

We all know the legacy of certain religious institutions in the context of sex abuse and the fact that, to a large extent, they have not paid their dues in terms of the liabilities to the individuals damaged by their activities. That has manifested in a number of ways, and there is a larger issue I do not propose to discuss, but I will address an issue relating to a school in my area, Clonkeen College, which is just a couple of hundred metres away from where I grew up. It has suffered particularly as a result of the Christian Brothers' decision to sell the lands associated with the school for development rather than leaving them as playing pitches. They do this purportedly to provide compensation, whereas I believe it is a sop to allow them to sell off that land rather than taking the hit for what they owe. Whatever about that, now a large boys' secondary school in the Deansgrange-Blackrock area has lost its playing pitches, and this week we find that the governing body of the school has decided that it will not reappoint the board of management, which includes parents, and instead will appoint a single manager to manage the school. In two foul strokes they have cut parents out of the deal entirely and cut down the school community to a single functionary who will run the school. I am astonished that this is permissible in the first place, but it appears that it is under a statutory instrument from the late 1990s. It is not right. Parents are an incredibly important part of the school community. The notion that they should be cut out of management, out of the board and out of decision-making is absolutely wrong. It is incumbent on the Government, particularly the Minister for Education, to take steps to ensure that this cannot happen. It should not happen. Schools are not companies; they are communities. They need the involvement of every part of the community: parents, children, teachers - everyone.

I wish to follow on from the theme of the contribution of my colleague, Senator McGahon, namely, Covid. I raised with the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, in the Seanad last night the issue of the cohort of 230,000 people who received the Johnson & Johnson Janssen vaccine, of which I am one and I know Senator McGahon is one. It is generally our age cohort that received that single-dose vaccine. The research now shows that we have limited if any protection from Covid-19 as a result of the waning immunity provided by the vaccine, yet we are told our 30-40 age group must wait in line until we are reached, which will be some time next year, maybe the end of January or February. I have to question the logic of saying the younger age cohort that received that single dose is at less risk of picking up Covid-19 than someone in the older age cohort who does have protection, albeit a declining protection, from the likes of the Pfizer, AstraZeneca or Moderna vaccines. I ask that there is correspondence between the Leader and the Minister on this issue. I know he said it is being reviewed, but this cohort of people, who have pretty much no protection from Covid-19, need to be prioritised. I ask the Leader to take that matter up with the Minister.