Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the legislation. We were all surprised a few weeks ago when it became clear that much of the work that was done by people around the country who set up beer gardens and outdoor drinking areas for which, in many cases, they received grants from the State was actually done in the absence of proper authority from the point of view that the terms of their licences did not cover it. Of course, when we spoke to people who would know this, particularly solicitors, and indeed, many vintners, they were always suspicious and asked if they were really doing the right thing. Yet, we find that the Government proposed that this was the thing to do for months without checking and making sure that it had the legislation in place. It is late in coming but it is welcome. That is the point I wish to make in that regard.

One of the big problems we have relates to the fact that the Bill is before the House on the day after the mess we ended up in regarding yesterday's announcement, which was not an announcement all, as to what was going to happen with indoor activity in hostelries. It is clear that the big issue is not what the Government is doing, it is that the Government is not communicating with people. This is a lesson that the Minister, the Tánaiste, the Taoiseach and everyone involved, including the National Public Health Emergency Team, NPHET, need to get their heads around. There needs to be clarity in order that people understand why decisions are made and what is happening. People are very intelligent. They can ascertain what is happening and why a decision is made in a particular way. Instead of that, however, the Government leads them up to the very last minute and then when they are at the top of the hill, ready to go, it says it is sorry and that it has changed its mind. It tells people it cannot proceed because of A, B and C, without at least doing the work beforehand to ensure that people understand why. That is really why there is so much anger about all of this.

As I said, it is welcome that this legislation is being put in place to make sure that people will not be breaking the law when they are trying to make a living, as many people across the country are doing, particularly in the good weather we have now. The sunset clause in the Bill is welcome, although I expect that by the time we get to 30 November, very few people will want to drink, eat or do anything else outside because it will be quite cold by then.

I wish to mention the issue addressed by amendment No. 1, which I will move on Committee Stage. This is a minor amendment in respect of the last line in section 3, which states that a "specified person" may be "any ... person for the time being in charge of the premises." That is very loose. It could well happen to be a very junior member of staff or somebody who happens to be working for a couple of hours while the person in charge or the manager is away. To hold that person legally responsible for everything that happens on the premises at that time is difficult. I suggest the Minister needs to revisit this. The purpose of our amendment is to remove that from the Bill.

The core problem when it comes to why we are here is really Covid-19. The pandemic has caused major problems for vast numbers of people and has really put us in a terrible place. As we try to move out of it, however, and as more people are being vaccinated, which is welcome, we all talk about the race between the vaccine and variant. The truth is that people need to understand why we are making these decisions. One of the problems we have is that decisions are made without people being given the opportunity to try to understand. The Government needs to start to get that right. We need to start to communicate with people. We need to start to set out in clear terms how and why certain decisions were arrived at and how and why we can change them, what levels we need to be at from both the point of view of the vaccine, the numbers we have in hospital and when we want to move on from the different levels. That has never been done. People are in the dark about that and feel very annoyed with what has happened in the past couple of days.

I have been contacted, as, I am sure, has every other Deputy in this House, by numerous people who are involved in the hostelries, pubs, bars and restaurants and by members of the general public who are annoyed and frustrated.

They cannot understand why we are different from everywhere else in Europe. There must be some clarity in this regard. It is one of the points the Minister needs to take from this debate and from what has been a very bad week for the Government. She needs to step up to the mark in communicating clearly with people. If she can do that, she will find she at least enjoys some respect from people regarding the decisions being made. The Government certainly is not enjoying that respect at the moment. This is a pity as we all need to work together to get ourselves over the problems we face with the Covid-19 issue.

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