Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I support Deputy Howlin’s amendment. This whole legislation is another attack on the publicans of this country. I have already said in the past week in the public domain that Fine Gael spent four years trying to get rid of the rural pubs, aided and abetted by Fianna Fáil, but now Fianna Fáil is doing its level best to close their doors, and the doors have been slammed shut, unfortunately, for the past number of months.

We have been told that a pathway is now being considered to open the doors of the pubs but this legislation is another attack on most of these publicans. In 99% of cases, publicans are complying with all the rules and regulations that are put before them, and they are simply asking to open their doors and they promise to comply with the rules. However, it could well happen, from listening to what Deputy Howlin and others had to say, that a judicial review would have to take place if a bar or pub had to close for one day. It is farcical to think publicans would have to go to that type of cost to open their doors.

From talking to members of the public, I know they are very frustrated. There are many rules and regulations in place due to Covid and most people have accepted that and have worked at that, and we in this House have supported it up to now. However, this is one step too far. People see that this Government is starting to dictate and what is going to happen is that the Government will lose the goodwill that is out there due to its dictating. It is going to have to take a step back and work with people. As I said, everybody is doing things they wish they did not have to do, but they understand the situation we are in. To just take the last week, there have been further rules and regulations. I see in the Southern Starthis morning that fishermen feel the Government signed a statutory instrument forcing penalty points on the hard-working fishermen and fisherwomen of this country. Again, it is another rule, another regulation. The Government is clearly forcing rules and regulations on the people of this country.

As I said, we supported any legislation that was brought before us in the past few months. I personally feel that any legislation brought before us should be strong enough to enforce, if the gardaí are there to enforce it, but even the Garda representative body has made it very clear they are not overly supportive of this because they do not have the manpower to carry out much of what is being proposed, although it looks good on paper.

Many parties are being held and that needs to be controlled because they are outside a proper control environment. However, that is because the Government left the bar doors shut. Unfortunately, and while I do not support this, people had pubs set up in sheds, in gardens and God only knows where because they felt there was no other place to go, whereas the controlled environment was the place to have them. When there are situations, the rules and regulations that are already there are well complied with by publicans, and when the odd person breaks the law, the law can come down on him or her. Now, however, the Government is striking more rules and regulations for a sector that has been finger-pointed by the Government continuously in the past six months as a sector that has been the cause of the coronavirus spreading in this country, which is outrageous. I will certainly support the amendment.

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