Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I preface my comments by saying that I know the Minister of State is giving the position of the Minister. It is the second amendment I have discussed.

It is the second time I was given an assurance by the Minister for Health and the second time that it would appear, notwithstanding an additional sentence at the end of the Minister of State's response, that the assurances I was given have not translated into the committee room. It is deeply regrettable because we need to be able to have conversations in good faith with the Government. On that basis, I do not accept the Government's position. I think it is an absolutist position. Were we not to accept that we were meeting our public health obligations by following exactly what we are doing in licensed premises, then we are clearly not meeting our public health obligations in licensed premises. Either the regulations applied to licensed premises work or they do not. The idea that a sign works in a pub but does not work in a shop is ludicrous. One can either read a sign and impart information from it or one cannot. The idea that there is a certain number of times one has to walk past the sign, the idea that one has to be in the proximity of the words for a particular amount of time before understanding what those words say is patently ridiculous. It is absolute nonsense. On the basis that the arguments being put forward by the Government are ludicrous and regrettably for a second time in a row are at odds with undertakings I have been given, I will be pressing amendment No. 18.