Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

-----including hearing confession, is deemed to be a criminal offence. Therefore, the Dáil has been bypassed as a matter of routine. That is wrong. I ask the Government to ensure that in developing restrictions, the law in general and the criminal law in the weeks to come, it desist from criminalising these two aspects of practice within Irish society. It is really important that we have a very clear system of criminal law.

It is also important in terms of criminal justice that people understand exactly what is illegal and what is not illegal. It is important also that there is no confusion regarding criminal law in this State. The truth of the matter is that there is a significant level of confusion now. There is confusion regarding the language the Minister is stating and what legal professionals acting for the State are indicating in the High Court. There is also confusion, according to a law professor in Trinity College Dublin, about what is a criminal act and what is not a criminal act. If we expect citizens to obey the law, then it must be clear to them exactly what is the law. Since the case in the High Court, I have asked the Minister serious questions about whether hearing confession outdoors constitutes a criminal act. Again, the Minister could not give a straight answer.

The Government is putting together the restrictions for the next month in respect of a country which has had the longest and most severe lockdown in the whole of Europe. I ask the Minister to ensure that we look at several key criteria in the development of future laws. These key criteria are the number of admissions to hospital and the number of admissions to ICUs. Right now, those figures are very low, thankfully. In some counties now, days go by when there are no Covid-19 cases. Indeed, the number of people being admitted to hospital in Munster is very low. This should feed into the Government's design of the criminal law in future. I am asking the Government to ensure that we accelerate the pace of reopening and address the liberties of the citizens of this country.

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