Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I will respond to the Minister. This section connects the provisions of this Bill to the extraordinary powers given in previous emergency Covid-19 legislation that we supported. It allows the Minister for Health to prescribe certain events and activities as offences carrying penal provisions. The problem is what has now changed. The enforcement powers that this Bill provides can now be used for regulations made under the Act, and we do not know what those could be.

There is a range of new enforcement powers which could be used to bring about regulations that the Minister may decide to introduce. That is a problem. Although I accept the point that there is a need to connect one Act to the other, the consequence is that what everybody has accepted are draconian measures, although necessary in a particular context, could be applied to other contexts. Those draconian enforcement powers could be applied to other actions, which is a problem. It is the reason we oppose the section.

See this speech in context