Mr. Liam Herrick:

We recommended to the Government as far back as May that there should be consultation with the Oireachtas and the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission on all regulations that have an impact on people's rights. Beyond that, we are also available to support and assist in any way we can. We can all accept that in the early phases of trying to respond to a growing crisis, it might have been necessary to introduce regulations in a very short period. We do not believe it is justified at this point that regulations would be introduced without engaging with the Oireachtas and wider civil society in the statutory sector.

We note that this committee wrote to offer its assistance to the Department of Health a number of months ago and that offer has not been taken up. That is regrettable. I hope at this point, when we are undertaking a review of how we go about responding to the Covid-19 pandemic, it is a good opportunity to try to put in place better processes.