Mr. Liam Herrick:

: Obviously, countries all over the world have had to grapple with the same problems. There is a category of countries that have exploited the crisis to shut down the opposition and civil society. We have seen that in parts of the developing world and in Europe. There are countries such as Ireland that have done their best to balance rights. As I said earlier, the fact that the police have used discretion here has avoided some of the extremities we have seen in other jurisdictions. At the same time, countries like New Zealand, Australia and others have built in a better role for parliament and bodies like national human rights institutions in their decision-making processes. I would not say that Ireland is in a negative category. Rather, we have not availed of all of the tools at our disposal. We can see other examples of jurisdictions that have built in better democratic protections at all stages. The opportunity is there for the Oireachtas to try to reinsert itself into the process, which would greatly assist us.