A popular Dublin nightclub has announced that customers will require negative COVID-19 antigen tests to enter the establishment.

Pygmalion on South William Street in Dublin is set to offer free antigen tests to customers to help protect staff and customers from COVID-19. 

All ticket holders for club nights at the popular venue will be required to take an antigen test upon their arrival. The tests will be self-administered, while Pygmalion staff will be on hand to assist with any problems. 

Customers must present a negative test to enter the venue. If a customer returns a positive test, they will be refused entry and issued a refund. 

In a statement, Pygmalion said: "We feel that this is best practice for our staff and customers alongside the need to produce a digital COVID vaccination certificate, and purchasing tickets for contact tracing purposes. Negative test results will be necessary for entry to the venue, if a customer receives a positive result outside the venue then a refund will be issued. Tests will be self-administered, and there will be assistance available if necessary.

"Countries such as Germany & Sweden have had success with antigen testing with support from their respective governments in implementing testing. Research shows rapid tests are 99.9% accurate. This means the chance of getting a false-positive result (where the result shows as positive but is actually negative) is extremely low.

"We have seen how venues similar to ours have reopened safely with antigen testing in place, this was also in place for Ireland’s pilot nightclub event which took place on September 30th."

A start date has yet to be confirmed for the new measures, which will only apply to the nightclub section of the South William Street venue when it opens at 11 p.m. Customers will not need a negative test result to enter the venue's bar and restaurant. 

Taoiseach Micheál Martin hinted on Sunday that antigen testing will become more widespread in coming weeks and said that the Government would be introducing measures to make antigen testing more affordable. 

"The Minister for Health will be bringing forward proposals in respect of a wider deployment of antigen testing and also making it that bit more affordable for people if we want to introduce a culture of greater utilization by people of antigen tests," Martin said in Enniskillen on Sunday.