Michael McNamara (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The legislation that is expected to go through today is the fifth major legislative provision on Covid restrictions that the Government has put through the House. This is the fifth time the Government has used its majority not to put forward its legislative agenda, which is legitimate, but to curtail debate and ensure that Opposition amendments will not even be considered. That is not legitimate and it is not democracy. It turns democracy into a tyranny of the majority. Deliberative assembly and deliberative democracy go out the window. At what point does civil disobedience become legitimate? There is obviously a point at which it does. The Taoiseach called for civil disobedience in the form of peaceful protests in Belarus last summer, in the teeth of a pandemic, to be allowed and respected, even though protests were banned by the Government there. At what point is civil disobedience acceptable and legitimate if democracy is not adhered to?

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