Businesses that deploy rapid antigen testing for staff should be compensated for 80 per cent of the cost, a representative group has said.
The Irish Small and Medium Sized Enterprise Association (Isme) said employers wanted to protect employees and help to reopen the economy but many could not afford antigen tests at up to €10 per kit.
Neil McDonnell, Isme chief executive: “A mass rollout of antigen testing is for the societal good but if you say to a childcare provider, ‘we advise you to test people on a regular basis,’ that is meaningless because they can’t afford it. If you say, ‘we will cover 80 per cent of the cost for you to test people twice a week’ then it will actually start to happen.”
The government’s expert group on antigen testing recommends trials in schools and some workplaces before the programme becomes widespread. About one in 1,000 rapid antigen tests produces a false negative but they could still useful in mitigating the risk of transmission, the experts said.
Switzerland already tests its population twice a week and the authorities in Spain used rapid antigen tests to hold a concert with an audience of 5,000 last month. In Ireland it is being used in healthcare and meat processing plants. If successful it will be rolled out more widely.
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“The level of transmission in retail settings is low but it is not zero, so that is a foreseeable known level of risk. It might be less than 1 per cent but if you deal with all the 1 per cents then you radically cut down the risk of transmission of this virus in society,” McDonnell said.
“We don’t need to pilot this — it has been piloted all over the world. We just need to get on with it and do it. Even if we make a couple of mistakes along the way, who cares? We will still be better off than if we hadn’t done it.”
Staff who refuse to be vaccinated may be asked to take a test every day, McDonnell added.
The Irish Exporters Association said that many of its businesses were already taking on the cost of rapid antigen testing. Simon McKeever, chief executive, said: “It could be very detrimental to these businesses if they have to close due to an outbreak because their market is in a foreign country where they are more than likely up against local products and global competitors.
“It has taken them perhaps years to get that business in the first place, it is a very expensive business to maintain and because they face such competition in those markets if they were to close for a short while they may lose that business and they may lose it for ever.” He called for tax relief or other forms of state compensation.