Sinn Féin's Pearse Doherty has called on the Government and health officials to release details of the number of people in Ireland waiting for a COVID-19 test or test results.
More than 60,000 tests have now conducted in Ireland, with more than 8,000 cases confirmed here to date.
However, there have been reports of significant backlogs in testing - with some people waiting two weeks or more for their results to come through after they've been tested.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and others have pointed to a global shortage of the reagents required for testing as the main reason for the delays here.
However, there are now calls for the full figures of people waiting for tests or results to be released.
Speaking on The Hard Shoulder, Deputy Doherty acknowledged that health officials are doing their best in many respects - but that he failed to get answers about the backlog during a briefing for the Dáil's political parties.
He claimed officials are "deliberately withholding information from the public" when it comes to the testing backlog.
He said: "I'm aware that the HSE would have this information - they obviously would know the backlog that is there in terms of testing.
"They're simply refusing to provide information - and what we have is a confusion then in figures that are out there.
"We all know there are challenges there in relation to the testing kit, the reagents... there's a global shortage... we know everybody is doing their best in trying to secure extra tests.
"It appears to me... that there is a significant backlog in relation to testing, and what we need is a bit of transparency in terms of where we're at."
Earlier today, it was confirmed the HSE had secured a supply of reagents for up to 900,000 COVID-19 tests - with authorities hoping the supply will allow the National Virus Reference Laboratory at UCD to carry out up to 10,000 tests a day in the coming weeks.
