Interesting angle to the contact tracing story. Brief thread:

During the first wave, many civil servants volunteered and were trained as contact tracers. Some were never deployed.

In July, many were released as the Temporary Assignment Scheme was deactivated with this letter:

Now, it makes sense that some weren’t needed. We were in lockdown, then case numbers were falling. The need for massive numbers of contact tracers weren’t there.

It also makes sense they were released from temporary assignment. They had other jobs to do.

However, in August and September, case numbers were rising. The HSE had launched a recruitment campaign to hire contact tracers. But already there were indications of an issue.

Towards the end of Sept, the HSE confirmed to me they were seeking to get staff from other Departments under the TAS

It is worth asking what happened between July, when TAS was deactivated, and September, when the HSE sought to reactive it, alongside a recruitment programme

It's a good idea to have a permanent test & trace programme. It's also a good idea to have a reserve fuel tank like TAS. But why were both needed at the same time in late September? What was done in the interim?

We are being hit with a significant second wave, that is taking nearly all of us by surprise with the speed and scale it is moving at. But during the summer, when things were quiet, why wasn't a test and trace system built that anticipated something like this happening?