The HSE has finalised a deal to allow Irish coronavirus testing to be done in European labs.
CEO Paul Reid announced that the deal had been made to help speed up testing but stressed that priority cases would still be carried out in Ireland.
Speaking on RTE One Radio’s Today with Séan O’Rourke, he said: “We have scaled up in a way like never before in the history of the State.
“We have a three-pronged approach to tackling the backlog. One strand is transferring some of the queue to a reputable organisation in Europe.
“The second is the tracing of extra testing kits, with the assistance of the IDA, which should arrive in the next week to 10 days.
“The third angle is working with Irish pharma and bio-pharma companies and third-level institutions to determine their capacity to ramp up testing.
“We are in the top tier of the world in terms of testing. We are in the top five.
“We are working around the clock and are at a squeeze point now.”
Mr Reid said he wants to get to the stage where there are between 10,000 to 15,000 tests being carried out per day, but that will not happen in the next week.
Currently, there are 2,600 tests being carried out daily.
He added: “There will be an extra 7,000 beds in the health system shortly, made up of 2,200 public beds, 2,000 private beds, with 1,200 created in City West and a further 1,200 in a similar vein.”
