Mr. Liam Herrick:

It is worth reflecting that when the Health (Preservation and Protection and other Emergency Measures in the Public Interest) Act was passed by the Oireachtas in March 2020, the Government initially proposed that it should have the power to extend the period of the legislation indefinitely without coming back to the Oireachtas. It was only after amendments were proposed by Members of the Oireachtas, and following suggestions from the ICCL and others, that the sunset clause was introduced.

It was originally envisaged that there might be one renewal in October 2020 until June 2021. What is now being proposed will further marginalise the role of the Oireachtas and further centralise the power of the Minister. In the first instance, the Minister will not be required to come back before the Oireachtas until November, an extended period during which, we understand, the vast majority of the population will have been vaccinated, international travel will have restarted and so on. Thereafter, it will, as Deputy Hourigan noted, only require a simple resolution to continue to extend the law beyond that point. There will not be a debate. There will just be votes in both Houses of the Oireachtas, which is a weaker protection that exists at this point. We see this as a further marginalisation of the role of the Oireachtas. It calls into question whether what was clearly envisaged as a temporary measure for a certain period of time is now being extended beyond that. The danger is that there might always be some risk or case for retaining extraordinary ministerial power. The Minister might always be able to point to some ongoing public health risk, but the onus and the threshold should be greater and higher than at present.