Michael McNamara (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish to voice my support for the amendment proposed by Deputy Howlin. At this stage we have to ask whether this is really about the risk posed by pubs and bars or moral opprobrium and our disapproval of certain behaviour. It increasingly seems to be about the latter. Along with the entire House I voted to give draconian powers to the Minister for Health in March. I do not regret doing that in any way, but I will not vote to increase those powers at the end of November. I see no evidence to support their necessity from the end of November. This legislation is based on the assumption that those powers will roll over and a new normal will be somehow necessary. I do not accept that because I do not accept that Covid-19 is the first serious virus this State has faced. I am not a Covid-19 denier, not for one minute. I accept that this is a very serious virus, with very serious repercussions for people who contract it. It has particularly serious repercussions for certain groups of people, who should not be differentiated from everybody else in any way. At the same time, I also accept the necessity for society to breathe and for people to live and to make informed decisions.

At the beginning of the AIDS epidemic in the United States, when AIDS was seen as a disease of gay men, public health doctors advised gay men to avoid sexual contact with each other. They did not do that. I recently read a very interesting study by a Harvard professor who stated that the lesson from this is not to prescribe behaviour but to inform people of the risks of various types of activity and let them make an informed decision. That is what we do day in, day out in every facet of society and every facet of our lives. That is what we will have to do in this instance too. Yes, we had a lockdown when we frankly did not know what else we could do to stop our hospitals and healthcare system from being overrun. Thankfully we have increased the capacity of our healthcare system since then, though perhaps not by as much as I would have liked. We have also learned much about the virus. No public health doctor in Ireland would now countermand the direction to protect nursing homes, but that happened. I am not apportioning blame; I am just saying that we know more now than we did then.

This provision removed by this amendment includes the wording "whether in relation to a relevant provision or otherwise". Is it really about increasing Garda powers to inspect bars because we do not approve of bars? There are many people in society who do not approve of bars. None of them is forced to go into one. There are many people in society who disapprove of smoking. Nobody is forced to smoke. If we are seriously going to go down this road, let us ask whether we simply want to stop the sale of alcohol. Do we want to have a prohibition era in this country? It seems there are people who want to do that. The latest direction from the National Public Health Emergency Team, NPHET, calls for concerts to be considered, but not concerts at which alcohol is sold. It seems clear that we are against alcohol. It is fine to have a mosh pit at the front of a Megadeth concert, but God forbid that someone should have some alcohol at it. It is ridiculous and bordering on slightly irrational.

I understand why NPHET comes up with these directions. Any doctor who is put in a position where he or she calls the shots and politicians hide behind him or her will be incredibly conservative. Nobody, certainly no politician, wants to take the blame for getting it wrong. That is why we have set up this bizarre structure by which we send out a group of unelected officials to do a job for which people are elected, paid and receive a seal of office in Áras an Uachtaráin. I accept that those officials are working incredibly hard to keep us all safe. This has to end at some point.

Using Covid-19 to grant extra powers to An Garda Síochána that are not about Covid-19 is reprehensible and wrong. I support the removal of the provision enabling that from the Bill before the Dáil. I therefore support Deputy Howlin's amendment.

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