Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I agree with my colleagues on the guillotining of Bills. I also object to the Order of Business on the basis that the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2021 will be the subject of a very short debate. The Bill is being guillotined. Fundamental changes were made in the Seanad just last week and the legislation is now being rushed through. The changes and amendments that were made changed the Bill from being something that was meant to be science driven and evidence driven to something that is now politically driven. That is unacceptable and represents a slap in the face to the people, the committee members and the experts, all of whom gave evidence and their time to ensure that we got a very robust Bill. The Government has completely undermined that. I ask that we be given additional time to debate this because there are serious issues which need to be discussed.

I must also make a point about the words that are being flung out here, such as "authoritarian" and "apartheid", as if they involve no consequences. I have a message for one of our colleagues from the Auschwitz Museum, which states: "Instrumentalization of the tragedy of all people who...suffered, were humiliated, tortured & murdered by the hateful totalitarian regime of Nazi Germany to argue against vaccination that saves human lives is a sad symptom of moral and intellectual decline." I ask Members not to refer to that. It is absolutely disgraceful that people's memories are being trampled on in this way. Members should not be comparing vaccination programmes to the Holocaust.

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