Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The intent of this Bill, which thankfully is time-limited, is welcome, not just for addressing a legal lacuna that was pointed out by An Garda Síochána but in giving certainty to the hospitality sector. Certainly, over the past few weeks, there has been much confusion, particularly in Killarney, as to what was contained in the town by-laws, which included a 100 m rule, as against the new regulations. Unfortunately, certainty has been in precious short supply and many of the other farcical decisions made by the Government have caused a great deal of damage, division and misunderstanding.

It was bad enough when it became clear that the unvaccinated would be asked to work serving the vaccinated, as many hospitality and retail workers will not be offered the vaccine in time. Some of these young people, having worked in a restaurant all night, will not be able to join their vaccinated colleagues for a drink at the end of the night. Now it seems, under section 3(10)(d) of this Bill, that a young person who is covering a lunch break for an hour or two and who fails to produce the authorisation demanded by An Garda Síochána, could be arrested without warrant and possibly could face up to six months in jail. That is something workers will have to take into consideration with their employer. For nearly 18 months, young people have not been able to attend college, socialise, play outdoor sport or attend a match. In some cases, when they tried to socialise outdoors, they were met with members of An Garda Síochána's public order unit. After all of this, the message to them is that if they do not have the vaccine, they cannot socialise indoors but they must work indoors unvaccinated. Given that young people are more likely to occupy less senior roles and do low-paid work in pubs, and are less likely to own or manage those pubs, they are at risk of arrest, as defined in the Bill. While I support the vaccination programme, we are not going to get to sufficient immunity cover and the uptake we need through the creation of a two-tier categorisation of persons. However, given the record of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael in this regard, perhaps we should not be surprised.

We agreed to the Bill being waived through pre-legislative scrutiny but, once again, the Government is being caught flat-footed by very foreseeable developments, this time in regard to the fears around the Delta variant. The need for this legislation has a solid legal basis but, as we have heard from expert witnesses at the justice committee over the past year, the Government has often blurred the lines, whether deliberately or accidentally, between what are legal obligations and what is health advice. A Private Members' motion my colleagues and I moved would have gone some way towards addressing this by requiring the Government to bring regulations under the relevant legislation before the House for scrutiny prior to their being enacted. The problem goes beyond the confines of parliamentary scrutiny. We have had answers given during press conferences not appearing in Government advice, omissions from Government advice and poor promotion of what restrictions are currently in effect or the rationale for them.

All of this continues to be a problem. We saw that today with the announcement regarding the numbers to be allowed to attend matches. This provision has been brought forward from midnight on Sunday to Saturday morning and should, in my view, be brought forward further to facilitate League of Ireland games, which take place on Friday nights, having an expanded number of fans in attendance. Surely the Government has some idea about the spread of the virus from what has been going on at matches around Europe over the past six months? We have been calling for changes in this regard, given that the matches take place outdoors. The UK has seen 50% capacity at games. In Denmark, 11,000 people have been allowed to attend matches. Why is NPHET not releasing the data on outdoor sports fixtures if it needs to justify the small numbers being allowed to attend matches in this State?

There are other aspects of the Bill that are concerning. The expansion of the provisions of the Criminal Justice (Public Order) Act 1994, for instance, could have been fleshed out a little more. Overall, however, the intent of the Bill is good and it will help to address the legal lacuna identified by An Garda Síochána. We will deal with that at a later stage.

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