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

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing Deputy Mattie McGrath and me to raise this important issue.

The Government is seeking to coerce people and now issue fines to anyone who attends mass or prayers in their church. When the Republic of Ireland originally went into lockdown in March, public worship was suspended. From the beginning, church authorities have worked with the Government to develop safe worship guidelines, including placing hand sanitisers at entrances, one-way systems of movement and social distancing, as well as a limit in the number allowed to attend each service of public worship which restarted in June. There is now disappointment, after all the work that went into the parishes reopening for public worship, that the authorities have again moved to ban people attending mass.

There is no evidence that going to church increases risks more than any other activity currently permitted under levels 3, 4 or 5. This highly restrictive and punitive measure completely fails to take account of potential alternative ways by which the church may gather while also implementing precautionary practices against the spread of Covid-19. That means that even if the country returns to level 3 restrictions after the current lockdown, public worship in churches would remain prohibited. Even the Irish Council for Civil Liberties believes that public church worship should be permitted under level 3 restrictions. The Government's effective ending of church worship is completely inappropriate. It deprives many people of the holy sacraments and leaves many feeling even more lost, disoriented and in need of help and solidarity. The Government restrictions on church worship take no account of the fact that those attending mass and services are the most compliant. Most churchgoers in Ireland are older and more attentive to the safety measures and exercising great caution and care. However, they are being treated with the same broad-brush approach as every other group.

The measures introduced in the Health (Amendment) Bill 2020 this week mean someone who attends a mass or a priest who celebrates a public mass will face fines of up to €5,000 or six months in prison. This is an outrageous attack by the Government on religious worship. It is truly shameful.

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