Dáil debates

Wednesday, 24 February 2021

Health (Amendment) Bill 2021: Second Stage (Resumed)

 

5:00 pm

Photo of Colm BurkeColm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I very much welcome the introduction of the Health (Amendment) Bill 2021. Particularly with new strains of Covid-19 being identified, it is important to regulate travel from abroad. The problem with new variants is that the transition rate seems to increase dramatically. In several instances, quite a large number of people ended up contracting Covid as a result of one person coming in from abroad. This was particularly the case at Christmas. Large numbers of people came in from overseas for the holiday period and this resulted in a large increase in the number of those who contracted Covid. The increase was attributable to a mixture of social gatherings and the arrival of people who had not been home or in contact with friends or relations for more than 12 months.

The supervision of people who come in from abroad is complex. It is not easy. It is about identifying facilities and making sure there are adequate services provided at those facilities. It is also about ensuring proper enforcement of the regulations at all times. It is important that we have now increased the fines that can be imposed for a breach of regulations. I refer, in particular, to section 3. Section 31A of the Health Act 1947 is to be amended by subsection 12 such that the fines on summary conviction will be increased from upwards of €1,000 to upwards of €4,000. This is an extremely welcome development. Section 31C of the 1947 Act is to be amended to increase the fine from €500 to a sum not more than €2,000. This is also welcome. There is to be a conviction, not just a fine, so the matter is serious. One will not just be able to place a hand in one's back pocket and pay a fine; conviction will have serious consequences thereafter. That is the only way we can make sure there is full compliance.

With regard to home quarantine, I am not at all sure we have sufficient regulations to ensure people who are identified as having Covid comply with the requirement to remain isolated. This needs to be revisited. I am not even talking about people who have travelled from abroad but about those who have been identified as having Covid. I have come across several cases involving people who were in public places even after testing positive for Covid. They were out in public within two to three days of having being identified as having the virus. We need to ensure regulation in this regard and we must have further enforcement and checks and balances to deal with it.

Contact tracing has been difficult. Several people involved in contact tracing to whom I have spoken have referred to the lack of co-operation on the part of certain individuals in providing information. Can we give more powers in this area? We need to consider this.

I welcome the work done by all our medical professionals in this area over the past 12 months and I acknowledge the challenges they have faced. They have delivered very well in the healthcare service.

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