Mr. Liam Herrick:

I thank the Deputy for three very substantive questions. The first relates to whether there might be other models of decision-making and collaboration. The ICCL submission to the Oireachtas Special Committee on Covid-19 Response, which was reflected in other submissions, looked at some other jurisdictions. In New Zealand, for example, regulations introduced because of Covid-19 must be approved by a resolution of its Parliament or house of representatives. That is in clear contrast with what we have here.

On the question of a broader system of public health advice, we have also indicated that we support the work of the National Public Health Emergency Team, NPHET. It is excellent work from a public health expert body that identifies questions relating to epidemiology. There is also the question of how restrictions might affect different sections of the population. We have suggested that the Government could construct another expert committee that might look at the wider economic and social impacts as another source of information to inform its decision. That has not been taken up. What we have had instead is it falling to the Cabinet to have that balancing perspective. The Cabinet clearly operates on the principle of confidentiality and its deliberations are not transparent and in public.

Again, in other jurisdictions we have seen broader-based expert bodies informing the Government and the deliberations of those bodies being carried out, sometimes even on national television or in a transparent and public way. There are ways in which we could make it easier for ourselves as a country by having better decision-making processes that are more open and transparent.

The Deputy raised a question about groups that may be critical of regulations but perhaps may have different objectives and it is certainly challenging for us. This comes into sharp relief on matters such as freedom of expression and the right to protest. The ICCL has consistently stated that the right to protest is an absolutely fundamental constitutional right. It would be preferable if the Government could set guidelines on how people can continue to express themselves and have the right to protest but also have some respect for the safety of others. There may be temporary rules about wearing masks in protests, social distancing or even the numbers involved with protests. It would be preferable to allow people to express their views in a safe way, even if we may not agree with them, instead of effectively having a blanket ban on protests. That would again create a risk that the Garda would have to distinguish between different protesting groups, which is not desirable.

We should of course respect everybody's freedom of opinion and belief but there must be some respect for the rights to health and life of others as well. We can do that and it would be preferable to allow people to protest safely than to prohibit protests completely, which has been the case, unfortunately, in some periods over the past year.