Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I support the Bill, albeit most reluctantly. I thank the Minister for acting speedily on this because there was a necessity for speed. The situation that arose was brought to the attention of the public by the chief superintendent in Galway. He did us all a favour by raising the idiotic situation that arose on foot of the failure to prepare and the message that we were going to have an outdoor summer. In that regard, I heartily welcome the Bill and thank the Minister for her speed in doing so. I do not accept that it could not have gone through pre-legislative scrutiny and I will come back to this point.

I find it very difficult that, once again, we are including measures on other matters into this Bill. In this case it is a provision which I agree with, namely, an increase in the number of judges but it should not be in the same legislation. It is not a good precedent and nor is it good for our democracy to keep waiving pre-legislative scrutiny, albeit that the committee agreed with doing it.

I will explain why, because Galway is a very good example of what happened. We brought in by-laws on two occasions, the second set of which is still there, which prevented drinking on the streets. We did everything correctly in Galway. The reason those by-laws were brought in was because after a long period of consultation and significant issues arising in relation to out-of-control drinking in public areas, there was no balancing of rights in residential areas. After a very long time we brought in the by-laws. However, the by-laws prevent drinking in the streets. The message from the Government was to go out and literally get drunk, that it would be an outdoor summer. I see the Minister takes issue with that. I take that back; it was to have an outdoor summer. That message of an outdoor summer was extremely limited, was it not? The message was to go out and consume, eat and drink and the Government would provide funding of €18 million. I have no difficulty supporting businesses. I am in favour of a thriving city, but the message was one-dimensional. There was no message of an outdoor summer in terms of canoes, sailing, windsurfing or any of the other wonderful activities we associate with summer or swimming. That one-dimensional message created huge problems.

That one dimensional message utterly ignored the Barcelona Declaration that we passed in Galway in 2002, with which the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, will be very familiar. I think she was there at the time. It guaranteed universal access to all residents to the city and enjoyment of its facilities, regardless of their age or ability. The mantra we all used at the time was good design enables and bad design disables, to get away from labels. That was ignored completely by management in Galway as it rushed to comply with the message from the Government to have an outdoor summer. I am glad that we are introducing this legislation. I am glad there is a sunset clause because I look on the taking over of public space as a restricted measure to help businesses to get over the Covid restrictions. That we would roll it on by way of a resolution is of great concern to me. I imagine I will be sitting in the Chair in due course when it comes before us without debate. I have serious concerns about that.

I return to yesterday's message that the Government now intends to allow only vaccinated people to be served indoors. I do not have enough words inside my brain to describe my reaction to that on both a gut and emotional level. It is divisive, disgusting and it is simply unacceptable. We brought the people of Ireland on and they led us by their example and now we are going to divide and conquer. It is unacceptable and sense must prevail regarding this matter. The Minister must stop this idiocy. There are three men in charge of the country who could do with some feminine help and practicality in relation to this.

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