Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I think the Deputy may have misunderstood the intention of the section. This section is essentially providing for the power that will prescribe the regulations that will apply to this particular Bill. As it currently stands, this does not allow myself as Minister for Justice and Equality or the Minister for Health to do anything new or for the Minister for Health in particular to do anything new. Under the recently enacted section 31A of the Health Act 1947, the Minister for Health already has an ability to make Covid regulations and can specify which of those regulations have penal provisions and which ones do not. It is an offence under this particular Act where somebody is in breach of that. That is already in place. What section 13 of the present Bill simply does is identify the particular penal provisions that are relevant for this. When this legislation potentially passes through the Houses, if it is approved and signed into law, the Minister for Health having engaged with myself and any other relevant Department will identify as we have already done the specific penal regulations that will be relevant to this Bill so that when members of An Garda Síochána walk into a premises they know the exact regulations that need to be adhered to and, if those are not adhered to, the gardaí can move to issue a direction to enforce it that a pub is closed immediately or that further steps are taken at a later stage.

If we removed this section from the Bill, it would become unworkable as the penal regulations required for gardaí enforcement would not be prescribed. The Deputy sees this as an important amendment to the Bill but if the section was removed, the Bill as a whole would not work. It is extremely important that section 13 is retained. It does not give any additional powers to the Minister for Health and they are already clearly enacted under section 31A of the Health Act 1947. This simply links the two laws and following enactment of this Bill, the Minister will sign an order very clearly stating which of those provisions relate to this.

As I mentioned, any new provisions that the Minister must sign into law must come before the Houses. There is an opportunity for this House and the Seanad to annul those within 21 days of them being enacted. It is a clear provision for Deputies.

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