David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Ceann Comhairle. I will be supporting this Bill, and as previous speakers have said, I would not be supporting it if the sunset clause was not in it. The Minister herself acknowledged that it is not desirable that we would have to bring in emergency legislation to deal with these situations. We must, however, go back to first principles. The public health guidelines are drafted by experts, clinicians and people who better understand the virus than I and the vast majority of people in this Chamber do, and they do this to keep us safe and to shape the decisions that we make here in this Chamber but also the decisions made in the Cabinet when it meets. These regulations come from the public health guidelines. We saw with the meat plants and in other areas regarding the back-to-work protocols that if these are not enforced, they are not worth the paper they are written on. We need enforcement and the enforcement agency in this case is An Garda Síochána.

It is also important to point out that that the vast majority of pubs and restaurants have been highly compliant. The vast majority of people going into pubs and restaurants have also been very compliant. Sometimes the bad news stories of the very tiny number of breaches are the ones that unfortunately make the headlines and go viral on social media for understandable reasons. These are a small minority. It is important that An Garda Síochána have the tools to be able to enforce the guidelines that we in this House put in place. That is An Garda's job which we have to allow it to do.

It is important that we do not conflate issues. I listened very carefully to those who argued that rural and so-called wet pubs should be open. I support that as best we can within the public health guidelines and we should open those pubs and support those publicans who have not been able to open for a long time. This Bill, however, is not about this but is about enforcing the guidelines for those businesses that are open and are in flagrant breach of the guidelines. We need a common-sense approach and a proportionate response here by both An Garda Síochána and politicians. That is what I want to see arising from this legislation. This sunset clause is very important because these emergency powers will have to cease. They can only be there for as long as they are necessary.

This virus is looking for weakness. It is highly contagious and dangerous. People get very sick from it and we need to be very conscious of that as we make decisions like the ones we are making here today. It is not desirable that we are bringing forward this Bill, but regrettably it is necessary because of the behaviour of a tiny number of public houses and restaurant owners.

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