Mr. Tony Geoghegan:

To build on what Professor Fennell has outlined, it is a given that the pandemic has adversely affected some groups more than others. Professor Fennell outlined some of those. The impact of the pandemic has been much worse on the elderly, women, homeless people and people who are socio-economically disadvantaged.

Dr. Lunn mentioned voluntary compliance and how we ensure full compliance. Now that we are over a year into this pandemic, we should be learning lessons. These regulations and guidelines were put together quickly, but we have time to review them now. We should be engaging the elderly, the homeless and people with disabilities on the types of supports they need to ensure compliance. In framing the type of restrictions or guidelines that are needed, we should also engage the people who are most directly affected. They should be involved in drawing them up. As Ms Cunningham from the AGSI said, it is important that gardaí are consulted on how regulations are to unfold if they are going to have to implement them. People in society who are adversely affected by these regulations should have a voice in how they are drawn up.

Senator Gallagher asked what evidence there was for the particular groups being disadvantaged in the implementation of the restrictions. IHREC's report on Ireland's emergency powers during Covid-19, done in conjunction with the human rights observatory of Trinity College Dublin, TCD, suggested that Garda enforcement has disproportionately affected younger people and ethnic and racial minorities, including Travellers and Roma. It is important to acknowledge that.

A common theme in the input of a number of speakers so far has been the need to learn lessons this far into the pandemic. How do we learn lessons? We learn them by reviewing what is going on. It is impossible to review the implementation of these restrictions without having proper data, that is, disaggregated data that show people who have been fined, told to go home or whatever. That information should be available, broken down to include ethnicity. IHREC has been pushing for this for a long time. We have written to the Garda Commissioner on this matter and have pushed for it. It is basic. If we want to review the regulations and ensure they are implemented in a human rights and equality frame, they must be capable of being reviewed. However, we need the data to be able to do that. This is a big issue.

I know the Policing Authority also came out on this to encourage An Garda Síochána to include the publication of the data broken down in this way. It is part of our overall duty now. The public sector equality and human rights duty places an obligation on all of the institutions to show their actions are compliant with national and international human rights and equality legislation. Disaggregated data is very important tool we need if we are going to be able to review this whole pandemic and the responses to it properly and effectively for the future.