Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

We are debating legislation to give emergency powers to the State regarding gatherings in people's homes. The powers would allow a garda to call to a house, ask the people in the house to leave, and if they refuse to leave, the primary resident can be fined €1,000. A person on the way to the house can be stopped by the Garda and instructed to leave the area and return home. If that person refuses to comply with the instruction, he or she can be deemed to have committed a criminal offence. These are drastic powers. I do not have time to go in to all the implications but we are being asked to accept the idea that people in their own home can be forced to give a garda their name and details, that someone who has never committed an offence in his or her life and who is in the territory of a first offence can be fined €1,000 and that person would not necessarily go to court but be given a summary fine on the spot.

Deputy Bríd Smith was absolutely correct in comparing this with the situation around television licences back in the day.

People on low incomes and poor, working-class people could potentially end up in jail because they will not be in a position to pay a €1,000 fine, whether on the spot or in court at a later date.

We have been told that gardaí will act with discretion in policing the regulations, but will that always be the case? An incident took place on the Bandon Road in Cork city at the end of September when gardaí called to a house where there was a gathering, entered the premises without a warrant, conducted body searches of the young people present and seized their college identification cards and handed them over to the authorities at University College Cork. To be clear, I am totally opposed to house gatherings that are in violation of the guidelines. I appeal to members of the public, in the strongest possible terms, not to have gangs of people around to their houses while the country remains in the current public health situation. However, these measures are drastic and they are not acceptable. They are part of a range of measures concerning masks, travel and protests.

The protest that took place yesterday was organised by a group, Yellow Vest Ireland, to which I am very strongly opposed because it is anti-mask. If one is anti-mask, one is anti-worker. Refusing to wear a mask is showing no respect for the bus driver or the low-paid shop worker. Some of the organisers of that march are far-right people whose politics are diametrically opposed to my politics and what I stand for. However, I want to put it on the record that I am opposed to the idea of gardaí drawing batons against participants in a demonstration, even a demonstration such as the one that took place yesterday, pushing them to the ground, handcuffing them and arresting them in significant numbers. One of the reasons I am opposed to such action is that if it is used against people who are anti-worker today, it can be used against people who are pro-worker and pro-progress tomorrow.

I wish to conclude by clearly stating my position on these matters. I am a strong supporter of masking up. I am a strong supporter of people not traipsing all over the country during the current travel restrictions and in light of the current public health situation. The great majority of ordinary people understand and respect their responsibility in this regard and will embrace it. However, we will not defeat the coronavirus with repression. It simply will not work. It will not be done on the basis of diktat but on the basis of persuading, understanding and encouraging a high level of consciousness. That consciousness is already there but it needs to be linked to a strategy people can believe in, that they are confident will work and which they do not feel is being compromised from all angles by the vested interests in this country.

See this speech in context