Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 9 September 2020

Special Committee on Covid-19 Response

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

Photo of Jennifer Carroll MacNeillJennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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Specifically, the problem we have with the Irish Constitution is that it requires Members to be in a particular physical place when meeting and when voting as Members of Parliament. That has been a barrier to exercising the required degree of parliamentary scrutiny so we are trying to look to the future to see what arrangements we might make.

I wish to ask Lord Sumption about what he said with regard to the health Act and specifically what he said on ongoing parliamentary scrutinyvis-à-vis the health Act. Would he like to elaborate further on that? We will have a number of other witnesses who will speak to that point later.