Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

It is reported that yesterday the Cabinet agreed to seek to extend the sweeping Garda emergency powers to November with a possible extension all the way to February 2022. Shamefully, while political parties have been exempted from the ban on gatherings, workers' pickets and socially distanced protests have been effectively banned for over a year. Recently, taxi drivers were threatened with criminal action if they went ahead with their planned car cavalcade even though every protester would have been inside their own car. On Monday night, the gardaí were used yet again against the Debenhams protesters. We saw the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign being threatened with prosecution if it went ahead with last Saturday's protest in solidarity with Palestine. Right now, 60 people can sit together on a bus, hundreds are gathered in factories, shopping centres and beyond but if they are holding a placard rather than a shopping bag, they face criminal action. That is shameful. My question is very simple: will the Government scrap this draconian imposition and ban on the right to protest?

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