Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Communication is the key here. The guidelines and any subsequent law must be enforceable. While the majority of establishments and people have played by the rules, unfortunately some have not. The gardaí have much to enforce now. I am not sure they can catch every offender with a pizza slice and a few pints. The message should have been that everyone with a food licence may operate as a restaurant, with the meal the main attraction rather than a loophole. That kind of rule breaking may result in many of our small family pubs which want to do the right thing being put out of business.

Many restaurants have operated really well and some have been victims of cruel online rumours about cases and contamination but they have abided by the rules and kept people safe. We need to support those people. I recommend that a way be found that concerned citizens or business people on the ground who see wrong being done can be given the mechanism to file a complaint which can be investigated. We cannot have our local gardaí responding to every complaint or to be everywhere, as we simply do not have the resources. Something like a submission system like that used for planning could be useful here where the public can raise their concerns and have them adjudicated upon.

I welcome the removal from this Bill of the power to enforce the regulation of house parties. It is not in the law but is still an issue that we have not got the messaging right on. There is still a lot of confusion with people out there. Some people have the sense that the term house party is a boozing late night gathering with young adults crammed into rental properties. It can actually be a family gathering to remember a loved one, a celebration of a birth or a communion, a milestone birthday, or a book club that meets perhaps every so often in their local community for a bit of dinner, a glass of wine or even cups of tea. We need to communicate in a better way and to choose our words wisely. When a makeshift bar in a local garden becomes the replacement for a local pub or a family gathers for a small wedding, people need to know which one is breaking the rules, because at this moment everyone is confused.

We come from a history of darkness associated with the authority entering people’s homes. We cannot shake that no matter how enlightened we become and there is always confusion on this point. We need to be absolutely clear with An Garda when it comes to people having house parties about what we are ruling on and what we are not. I suggest an application system whereby homeowners would outline their plans, the square footage of their home or garden, and the measures they are taking for public health. This might be one way of allowing things like small weddings in people’s large rural gardens or wakes to go ahead in the full knowledge of the local authorities. This might stop everyone from losing the run of themselves and reporting things to the Garda that it cannot do anything about.

Irish people have been amazing and have complied with very difficult and confusing recommendations. Can we give them the benefit of the doubt without having to resort to draconian measures? I am happy to know that these powers are limited and specific. We must, however, ensure that we can enforce these laws. I am deeply concerned to hear anecdotally of the isolation of those travelling in from non-green list countries not being enforced. In fact, there is nobody really checking to see if people are restricting their movements. While cases of travel-related Covid-19 might be dealt with in law, if people see others flouting the law, they will not stick with us. Simply put, with these powers there has to be enforcement and consequences or we will lose these people altogether.

I heard the Minister speaking on the radio today about this legislation and I will be supporting it as it is very good legislation. I return to the issue of the wet pubs, and the Minister spoke about their reopening. It is 170 days since wet pubs were last open. I have spoken to many vintners. There are families that are absolutely devastated. In rural towns and counties the pub is the life and soul of the town itself. These are controlled environments and are normally family pubs that would not break any laws, yet they are the only businesses not being allowed to open. It is not acceptable.

I have spoken to the Minister for Health several times about the wet pub operators feeling disheartened, let down, and that this Government has not been looking after them. Going forward, while I understand we need to work with health and safety, we also need to look at reopening these wet pubs. If we do not, many of them may not even survive to reopen again, which would be my greatest concern. We need to ensure that we come to them quickly with an answer by working through NPHET and the health professionals to give them a map and timescale. We need to let them know that we are looking at this now. I am aware that applications are open now for the €16 million funding that was allocated, but that is not going to keep pubs open. Will the Minister, when speaking to all the other Ministers in the Cabinet, including the Minister for Health, Deputy Donnelly, and NPHET, make the same point that all of the Deputies here have been making, which is that we need to get our wet pubs open?

This is good legislation. The only thing I always have concerns about is whether we have enough gardaí to enforce everything. This is important because the people of Ireland and worldwide have experienced such changes to their whole lives. Children are back to school now in a whole different world. The least we can do is to communicate in a better way and give more information. If we do that, we will give people far more breathing space and they will be far more relieved. We need to communicate and there is a significant barrier to this communication.

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