Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I remind the Minister of State and the House that Article 44 of Bunreacht na hÉireann asserts the freedom to worship publicly. However, under the restrictions imposed by the Government, public worship is now a penal matter. We are going back to the time of the Penal Laws and the pre-Famine period. I salute the Franciscans in Clonmel, including Fr. Michael Toomey, Fr. Brendan Crowley and my own parish priest, Fr. Garrett Desmond, who have made Trojan and Herculean efforts to get mass services online, with the help of volunteers. This is a very trying time but we cannot just walk all over the Constitution. What kind of Government does so?

People are entitled to go to their church to worship. They do so for solace, which they have never wanted more than they do now. We have a wonderful friary in Clonmel, as I said, and a shop adjacent to it which sells mass cards and mass bouquets. The church is open, fortunately, for private prayer but the shop cannot open. It is an essential service for people to be able to get a mass card or mass bouquet for a loved one whose funeral they cannot attend. There has been no thought for people in that situation. The Government must put some sort of package in place to support the churches.

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