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).
Broadcaster Mairead Ronan is off air and in isolation after her husband and their two young daughters were all diagnosed with Covid-19.
Mairead’s husband, businessman Louis Ronan, and the couple’s daughters, Bonnie (2) and Eliza (4), all tested positive for coronavirus over a period of eight days and are all recuperating at home in Clontarf.
However, the 40-year-old broadcaster, who has been off the air at Today FM for the last week-and-a-half to care for her family, has so far escaped infection.
“I have been tested three times and I am completely negative,” Mairead told the Irish Independent today.
“I clearly have some sort of immunity to it because I haven’t got it despite the fact that I was in the same bed as Louis. He was breathing all over me, I didn’t get it and I still don’t have it.
Today FM star Mairead Ronan off the air as whole family tests positive for Covid-19 rsvplive.ie - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from rsvplive.ie Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
As Ireland's Fittest Families returned to our screens, host Mairead Ronan spoke with Janice Butler about getting that work/life balance right, turning forty and why she's not ruling out baby number four.
Mairead Ronan admits she would love to have another baby goss.ie - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from goss.ie Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.