Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 9 September 2020

Special Committee on Covid-19 Response

Covid-19: Legislative Framework Underpinning the State's Response

Dr. David Kenny:

I believe that is how I phrased it in my opening statement. If what happened - I believe it happened in that case - was that people were given the impression they were under a legal obligation that did not exist, then I believe that is something the State should not do. We mentioned in our statement that we are unclear on whether this was essentially adopted as a deliberate tactic. We have no evidence of that either way. What we said is that we were concerned given its repeated occurrence. We said that perhaps this is something that is being used as a tool to ensure compliance. We would be very much of that view that should not be done and that there should be other ways of achieving compliance.