Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am truly shocked that the Minister persists with these draconian measures. He sees the rising opposition, thankfully in the House as well. People have woken up to see what is going on: the power grab. The Government has consistently and deliberately stoked fear over the coronavirus while behaving like an authoritarian regime, relying on police state tactics. The Government's handling of Covid has resulted in the State's exercising coercive powers over its citizens on a scale never previously attempted. The ease with which people could be terrorised into surrendering basic freedoms which are fundamental to our existence is truly shocking. Now the Government wants to hold on to these powers for potentially up to another eight months.

"Liberty" is a word much hawked around in recent years by both bullies and liberals, but personal liberty is a fundamental right. We agree to let governments walk over this threshold as a temporary measure - a wartime measure, really. Once the war is over, let us make sure this is removed. However, the Government does not want to remove it. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. This power has gone to the Minister's head. The Bill and the associated powers it allows for clearly indicate how the Government values our hard-won democracy, especially on this 100th anniversary of our freedom fighters and the people who paid the ultimate sacrifice. The extension of these powers does nothing to enhance our democracy. Rather, they are an attack on our democratic values and freedoms. Power, as I said, is addictive.

What if one of the legacies of this pandemic turns out to be profound economic hardship, sparking unease? Other Deputies have referred to the fact that most of the fines have been given out in poorer areas. Might future politicians be tempted to use similar powers? I think they will be. The Government has the patent designed now and it is a very dangerous patent. In a crisis of this kind, where so much is unknown, you may well need a strong government. We all backed the Minister at the start. He was in opposition at that time. We were all frightened, but when we saw the reality and woke up to what was really going on we said "No". The Minister and the Taoiseach have not briefed the oppositional leaders since last October. The Government got so punch-drunk with its powers it thought it would just walk in here with a nod and a wink and be on its way. It has not had respect the for the Opposition leaders or any other Members of this House to engage with or talk to them.

As I said, we have supported drastic action to prevent our health service from being overrun, but it has been overrun for nearly 20 years and there was not a word about it. I salute the front-line workers and what they have tried to do in the past 15 months. I think we will look back on this period as an inspiring time when citizens made huge sacrifices for one another as well as a time which saw the supposedly democratic Government set some worrying precedents. There has been a serious impact on health services, with a lack of diagnoses or delayed diagnoses for cancer patients, mental ill health and many other areas. The figures are there but the Government will not release them.

By using propaganda, the Government has to some extent been able to create its own public opinion - that is a fact, and it is a shocking way to treat people - with fear being deliberately stoked up by the Government, national broadcasters and whoever else joined the gang. The public has not even begun to understand the seriousness of what the Government has done but they are all educated and will make up their own minds. The Government has discovered the power of public fear and we have let it get away with it.

Since the onset of Covid, we have seen a loss of effective parliamentary scrutiny of emergency Covid powers as many are granted via stroke-of-the-pen statutory instrument. The Minister stood up here and told us he had read the regulations the previous night and told us point-blank that no priest or cleric of any order could be arrested, let alone fined or imprisoned. The Government's barristers and legal team told the courts below that was the position. We saw Fr. P.J. Hughes, a brave man, have to deal with six gardaí in his church on Sunday morning. Has the Minister any respect for the House that he will not correct the record and say he was wrong on that? He is not wrong on anything. He is infallible. The Pope was only trodding after him.

Cumulatively, these emergency measures are the most significant interference with personal freedoms since the independence of this country. I believe that 100%. As I said, we will look back on the measures taken to contain the pandemic as a monument of collective hysteria and Government stupidity. Governments in Ireland hold power on the sufferance of the elected Chamber of the Legislature. Without that we are not a democracy. The present Government has given the State the authority in the past 14 months to enforce public measures. I could read them out.

I understand that many other Deputies want to talk, but this is a step way too far. We were supposed to come back to the House on 9 June to debate a sunset clause. That is what we expected. Instead we have four pieces of legislation in this kind of omnibus Bill just fired together with no accountability, no pre-legislative scrutiny and, above all, no debate here. The Minister has come here just to guillotine the debate, and that is what he has done, with all Stages to be taken in two and a half hours, a vote and off you go. The Government needs a rain check.

I am alarmed this evening. I have no truck with any protester anywhere who is aggressive or violent or who causes damage, intimidation or fear. In fairness to the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, she is getting unduly harassed over a decision I reject totally, namely, the closure of a hospital in Carrick-on-Suir, but there is no place for an elected person to be intimidated. However, when I heard one Sinn Féin Deputy say this evening that the protests were dangerous, I was shocked. Sinn Féin has really gone full circle now and we are in a strange place when we think of recent history, with the water protests and everything else.

The Minister will not take any amendment, it is quite clear. I thank Brian Ó Domhnaill and our team for putting forward our amendments. We have many tabled. They will not even be debated or reached. By condensing the whole debate into two and a half hours, it was the Government's abject desire to crush democracy and stymie any debate. The Minister would not answer the question when he was asked whether he would take any amendment. He has no notion of taking any of the amendments. This power, as I said, has become a little dangerous to him and his accountability to us or to this House. He will not meet us. We fully oppose the Bill. We will call votes on any amendments and a vote at the end. I suppose it will be passed, but it is interesting to see backbenchers say one thing to their people and come in here and do the opposite. The genie is out of the bottle. The people have found out the trickery that is going on and the damage to our democratic society.

I will not say much more, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle, because I get no answers. I have got no answers to any questions. I have stood here week in and week out asking questions. I was never afforded the dignity of one written answer from the Minister. He thinks he is above the people of this House and the people of the country with his nice, plush area in Greystones and his nice big fence around it to keep him safe. It is shocking.

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