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

There are significant concerns among members of the public regarding international travel and new variants. People can see clearly that it does not make sense to make significant sacrifices in their lives to drive down the infection levels in the State while leaving the back door largely open.

A point was raised earlier and it has not been properly addressed. I refer to the fact that a debate about quarantine should not be a debate about non-essential travel. It should be a debate about essential travel. Non-essential travel to the State at this point should be banned. We can then have a debate about what quarantine regime we should have for essential travel. That is the first point I want to make. There could and should be a ban on non-essential travel to the State at this point. That point has been brought up but has not been addressed properly, if at all, in the discussion to date.

Regarding some of the specifics of the proposed legislation, the model that the Government is putting forward for a quarantine regime is a for-profit model. It is based on a private sector model. It is not just gardaí who would have the power under the proposals raised, hotel managers would have extraordinary powers. I will make some points about that in a moment. Perhaps that is why the legislation is silent about what facilities would be available in quarantine locations. There is no mention of access to IT or television facilities, let alone access to medical or legal facilities.

Serious concerns have been raised outside the Dáil by organisations that know what they are talking about regarding the civil liberty implications of the Government's proposals. Two such organisations are the Irish Council for Civil Liberties and Nasc, the Migrant and Refugee Rights Centre, an organisation which campaigns in respect of the rights of immigrants and asylum seekers. Serious concerns have been raised about giving the power to detain people without trial for two weeks not just to the State but to hotel managers. There are also concerns about the power to prevent people from leaving, in certain circumstances, even when a medical emergency arises.

The Government, without any oversight from the Oireachtas, will be allowed appoint as appeals officer someone who has not necessarily had training of any kind in human rights or in human rights legislation. There needs to be a debate about the kind of quarantine we are to have. The proposals for mandatory hotel quarantining the Government has put forward do not have my support but the basic point is that the debate should be on the issue of how to deal with essential visitors to the State. Non-essential visits and non-essential travel at this point should be banned. That is an ABC point that has not been addressed properly in this discussion.

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