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

People Before Profit will be opposing this Bill. Unlike most of the Opposition, we also opposed the pervious extension of the emergency powers in October 2020. We again oppose their extension for the same reasons, which have only become clearer over the course of the last six months.

Once again, we are being asked to approve the extension of draconian emergency powers without any review of how they have operated and with no opportunity for meaningful oversight by the Dáil. We have already endured six months of rule by decree by the Minister for Health, Deputy Donnelly. The Dáil should not simply nod along to this again. Instead, we need a proper review into how these so-called Covid powers were actually used against Debenhams workers, taxi drivers and Palestine protesters. What is more, we need to restore the right to safe, outdoor socially-distanced protest. It is time to lift the ban.

The Garda has repeatedly refused to provide a breakdown of fines and arrests by ethnicity, despite repeated requests from the Policing Authority and despite promising to provide that information. However, the evidence already exists. It is already in the public domain that the Garda has applied its powers in a discriminatory way. Young people, for example, have been disproportionately targeted. Some 77% of fines have been imposed on people under the age of 35, compared to 1% on those aged over 65. Incredibly, close to half of all Covid-related fines in Dublin have been handed out in just two of its 18 Garda districts, namely, Ballymun and Blanchardstown.

What concerns us even more is the effective suspension of the right to protest. Even though many of the most onerous restrictions have been lifted since 10 May 2021, such as the 5 km limit, and non-essential retail has reopened, the effective ban on political protest through the prohibition of outdoor gatherings larger than 15 people remains in place. Despite this, several important protests have taken place over the last few weeks, including large protests against the bombing of Gaza and the occupation of Palestine and smaller protests against the housing crisis and the pollution in Dublin Bay.

Last Saturday, thousands marched on the Israeli embassy in Dublin to demand the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador and sanctions on Israel. Some 22 other pro-Palestine protests took place across the country. It is clear that regardless of the law, working class people will continue to exercise their inalienable right to protest. With this Government in office, they have no other choice. The very least the Government can do is to stop criminalising them. An exemption from the ban on outdoor gatherings of more than 15 people must be provided immediately for outdoor protests, which can be organised in a safe and socially-distanced manner.

There is no evidence that outdoor protests lead to significant Covid transmission. A study of 300 US cities by the National Bureau of Economic Research of the huge Black Lives Matter protests last summer found "no evidence that urban protests reignited Covid-19 case growth." Not only that, the study pointed out that retail shopping, which is currently legal here when protests are not, was "potentially riskier for disease spread." This is in line with what NPHET and the Government are telling us about the relative safety of outdoor activities. Dr. Colm Henry of NPHET has asserted that the transmission of Covid-19 outdoors is 19 to 20 times less likely to occur than indoors. Less than 0.1% of cases here have been traced to outdoor transmission since the start of the pandemic. Unfortunately, our tracing system has not been given the resources it needs to trace every single case properly. Of those that have been traced, only a tiny percentage have been linked to outdoor transmission.

We are constantly and correctly being told that it is much safer to gather outdoors than it is to gather indoors for any reason. Yet, the Government is maintaining a ban on outdoor protest despite reopening indoor activities like shopping and promising to reopen indoor dining in bars and restaurants over the summer, even though all the international evidence shows that they are among the most dangerous activities from a public health perspective and a frequent source of superspreader events. Besides one being much safer than the other, what is the difference between outdoor protests on the one hand and shopping and dining indoors on the other? Clearly, it is that shopping and eating out are profit-making activities including for the big businesses that lobby Government and influence the decisions of the right-wing politicians who run our Government. By contrast, outdoor protests or sitting outside at Portobello make profits for nobody. Worse than that, from the Government's perspective, protests are about holding the powerful to account.

It is very convenient for a Government presiding over the worst housing crisis in the history of the State to ban us from protesting about it, especially when it has already lifted the ban on evictions and rent increases brought in to protect public health during the pandemic.

The Government would have us believe that Covid is sufficiently under control for landlords to be able to throw families out into the street and into crowded homeless accommodation, but not under control enough for us to be able to protest about it. The Government would have us believe that Covid is sufficiently under control for KPMG to send in scabs to pack up Debenhams stock and for the gardaí to break up pickets, but not under control enough for workers to be allowed to defend their livelihoods peacefully in a socially-distanced manner. We reject that logic completely. We will be voting against this legislation.

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