Neasa Hourigan (Dublin Central, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Good afternoon everyone. I will ask my questions and the witnesses may respond as they prefer. Before doing so, I reiterate the point made by Mr. Herrick that An Garda Síochána has been asked to walk a tightrope in the past year and has done so quite well but this is not a great long-term solution, as it puts much pressure on the force.

In the submissions today we have heard much about democratic scrutiny and some of the requests concern comprehensive analysis, technical reports and a substantive debate in the Dáil. I personally support all of those. I have a frustration that is not necessarily just around Covid-19 and I could make the same criticism with regard to budgets. Ultimately, we have a majoritarian Government and there is little we can do to constrain its decision making because of that majority. The witnesses have suggested the creation of a Covid-19 or human rights committee as a way of directly making recommendations to a given Minister. Are there examples in other jurisdictions where they do this better and it is a more collaborative decision-making process around Covid-19?

The witnesses also said this is not necessarily about the pandemic or the particular health advice in a given moment. Throughout this year I have been kind of keeping an eye on what various civil liberty groups are saying. The quality of that advice or interaction has changed. A letter went out in January on the quarantine matter. There is a requirement for the groups before us to navigate the health advice but I am interested in seeing if they could expand not necessarily on the quality of the advice but the method or way in which those giving health advice interact with the Government and these groups and how challenging that is.

I will be a bit selfish now as some of the emails I get most commonly now are from campaigns that rail against any of the constraints that the pandemic has brought. I am loath to say the groups contacting me are coming from the far right but it is certainly a position where they think Covid-19 does not really exist or that vaccines are a tyranny and imposition. How do the witnesses believe we could progress the discussion around civil liberties and return to constitutionally protected civil liberties in the way we are more used to them? I speak with regard to the discussion being co-opted by groups in an earnest way.