A former senior scientist at the state’s National Virus Reference Laboratory who left the agency during the pandemic to join Enfer, a private Covid testing business, last year received a dividend of
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Covid-19 test and tracing cost HSE €280m last year
Thursday, March 11, 2021
Gordon Deegan
New figures from the HSE show its total spending on the Covid-19 test and tracing last year was €280.48 million.
In 2020 the HSE carried out 2.4 million Covid-19 tests with the number reaching a peak in October when 450,162 tests were carried out.
Tipperary firm
A Co Tipperary firm Enfer was last year paid €122.4 million to process Covid-19 tests.
Enfer re-registered as an unlimited entity more than a decade ago and the level of profits it generates is not known. It is controlled by businessman Louis Ronan Snr.
Enfer – which has sponsored Tipperary GAA in the past – is based out of Clonmel and processed Covid-19 tests from its Kildare labs on behalf of the National Virus Reference Laboratory (NVRL).