A COMPANY BASED in the Donegal Gaeltacht region has said it can produce 10 million high-grade face shields a week for those working in healthcare settings. 

Rapid Action Packaging – (RAP), said it has the capacity to have a “significant bearing on the supply of disposable PPE face shield equipment worldwide” from their production and distribution centre in Gaoth Dobhair, Donegal.

RAP said it is able to reach full scale production immediately with the capacity to produce 10 million face shields a week and have current stock and capabilities to produce five million face shields in the immediate future if required.

The company has already begun operations by producing one million face shields, of which the first 65,000 have been earmarked for free distribution to care homes across Ireland, Northern Ireland and the UK. 

Initial feedback from distributed samples to health authorities has been positive and the product is in use in medical and other settings in Ireland and in the United Kingdom already. The company hopes not only to meet market demand in Ireland, the United Kingdom and in Europe, but it has created links with distributors in the United States also and therefore has deliberately tried to keep the cost of the equipment as low as is possible with prices starting at 14 cent per unit for bulk orders.

Údarás na Gaeltachta’s CEO Mícheál Ó hÉanaigh stated “RAP deserves huge praise for its efforts with the supply of PPE in the global campaign against Covid-19. It comes as no surprise to Údarás na Gaeltachta how innovative this company has been and how its design, processes and products have been repurposed in such a short period of time.  This product, the single use face shield, will certainly be a very important piece of equipment for healthcare in Ireland and further afield.

John McDermott, Operations Director at RAP in Gaoth Dobhair, said. “At a particularly difficult time globally we are extremely proud of what RAP has been able to achieve here in Gaoth Dobhair with the support of our colleagues in our parent company in London.”