Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am glad to support this motion to nullify and rescind the statutory instrument or blank cheque that was given to the Minister for Health last week. I thank the Kerry publicans who came up here today to fight their case, including the O'Callaghan brothers of the Fáilte Hotel in Killarney, Pat the Tatler Jack and the other publicans that left Kerry early this morning and will not be back until late this evening to make a case and try to bring common sense into the industry, which should have been there all year. The Minister brought in a Bill last week to deal with a small number of pubs, which he believed were not serving food with the drink they served. Six days later, he comes out and says he will open all wet pubs. What kind of lunacy are they at? Are they gone stone mad?

I am glad the Fianna Fáil backbenchers, such as Deputy MacSharry, and Ministers of State, such as Deputy Rabbitte, will get a chance to vote with us because they said they were sold a pup last week. I am glad Sinn Féin will get a chance, because they voted with the Government, as they also did to reduce our speaking time. Sinn Féin said Government actions last week were nuts, just hours after voting for it. Deputy Kelly said it was bonkers and he will have a chance this evening or tomorrow, whenever the vote is, to vote against the Bill that was brought in last week.

The Government today say they will open all pubs on 21 September. I do not believe it. I am sure no pub would be left open were it not for the savage pressure put on the Government last weekend when people realised what it was after doing. It is hard to make sense of this Government. When there was less than ten cases a day, it would not allow the pubs to open. Now there are 320 cases a day and it can open the pubs no bother. It is hard to make sense out of that.

The carry-on by the Tánaiste and the Taoiseach is disgraceful. The Tánaiste tweeted that he could not understand why pubs were closed. He closed them last March and he kept them closed in June. As Tánaiste, he did not allow them to open on 20 July, 10 August or 13 September as he promised but he is saying he will open them on 21 September. I do not believe him. He said the Bill was to follow up on a small number of rogue pubs and he told us that NPHET advised the Government that pubs serving drink should have to serve food. NPHET denies this. Did the Government think this up or was it Fáilte Ireland? I want to know and the publicans of Ireland want to know. I asked before how the virus would know whether you were having a meal with your pint or whether you were not having it at all.

As for the Taoiseach, it was wrong of him to come out last Friday night and categorically deny that he wanted to know what people were eating for 28 days. The Minister for Health should not shake his head because that is what the Government parties looked for and those were the regulations they sent out to the pubs and restaurants. The Taoiseach came out on Friday night and contradicted that. It is misleading to go on like that. It is trying to mislead honest people who are trying to survive. Deputies and Ministers are saying one thing and voting the other way in this Chamber.

The people of Ireland have lost confidence in the Government. Can the Ceann Comhairle picture a man and his son on the roof of a car in Beaufort last weekend trying to watch a match from the roadside? Two more men were on the one ladder trying to see the same match. The Taoiseach promised before the holidays that he would work with the GAA to see how more people could be let into sports fields and pitches to watch games. This is the result. This Government has done more U-turns than any other in the history of the State. We are on the fourth Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine in 2020. We have lost our trade portfolio at the most critical time in our history even though MEPs and officials should have special exemptions to travel back and forth from Europe similar to the Ministers for Health or Foreign Affairs and Trade. There should be some special way of dealing with all of that.

An eminent barrister, Constance Cassidy, SC, claimed that the measures put in place last week were "ill-judged, ill-considered, ill-formulated and ill-understood, even by the very Ministers responsible for [their] introduction". I feel she is referring to the Minister for Health because he was asked last Friday morning and he said he knew little about it. He went on the run then from five other radio stations that could not find him at all. This is what we have to put up with and I ask the Deputies that voted with the Government last week to vote against them this week.

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