David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Like the previous speaker, I will be opposing the Bill. I suspect the Government has the numbers to get it through, however. If the Bill is to be passed, the two proposed amendments would be better than the Minister's proposal to have a sunset clause of 9 October which could then be extended further. I support the two amendments and I look forward to the proposers of these amendments supporting my amendments later, which I am sure they will.

I support the amendments and I oppose the Bill. The vote we have just had on Second Stage shows the level of opposition to this Bill. As almost the entire Opposition have been telling the Minister in recent weeks, before he brings forward a Bill that includes a sunset clause, he should bring forward a plan that will work. If a plan is brought forward that does not work, he will not get support for the Bill from anyone other than the Government. No sooner was the ink dry on the Bill and the amendments sheet that has been published, that the Bill and the plan began to unravel. The Chief Medical Officer is already saying that one of the provisions of the Bill, the measure allowing under 18s into indoor hospitality, is not one he would recommend.

Yet the Tánaiste and the Minister were at pains to point out that those of us who do not support the Bill and who want a safe and sustainable reopening of indoor hospitality for everybody at whatever time it is suitable to do it, are somehow going against the public health advice, but the same Government is introducing a Bill that it seems the public health advice did not support and is now saying should not happen. That is why all of this is a farce and it is not going to work. Time and again the Minister has been warned that if he brings forward a plan that is impractical, unfair or discriminatory then he is going to run into difficulties.

We have more than 30 amendments. I will not speak for much longer because I know a lot of Deputies want to speak and I do not believe we should filibuster when there are so many amendments that we want to get through. We have 90 minutes, which is appalling, to go through all of the amendments. We have no hope of doing that. I do not believe the Minister is going to support any of the amendments. We are going through Committee Stage knowing that we can make our points, which we have done, but already the Bill and the Minister's plan is beginning to crumble. It seems to have already fallen foul of public health advice. That is an indication of the madness of all of this. It is not going to work. Everything I have heard from the Government and everything I have heard today from the Tánaiste about this being light touch, and that the compliance officers will not really be going into premises to check anything or enforce this shows that the Bill is just a farce. It is a nod and a wink and it is absolute madness. What the Minister should have done from day one is work on a solution that allows us to open indoor hospitality when it is safe to do so, in a safe and sustainable way for everybody. Instead, the Government has made an absolute pig's ear of it, as it has done on many other issues as well.

In all conscience I cannot support the Bill. I do not believe anybody in this House should support any Bill that excludes people, that discriminates and leaves people behind. It is not fair. It is not what should be happening. It goes against the grain of everything that I stand for as a republican that I would be asked to support a Bill that discriminates against young people especially, and leaves 800,000 of them outside the door. That is ridiculous. They are the same young people that we expect to go into pubs to pull the pints and serve the food but they cannot then avail of the same hospitality. Now we have families going on staycations, who are told on the one hand by the Government that they can bring in their children who are under 18 but the public health experts are saying they should not bring them in. This is the confusion and chaos that comes from a lack of planning from a Government that simply does not have a clue when it comes to putting in place solutions that are fair and sustainable. This mess is entirely of the Government's making. It can blame Sinn Féin and the Opposition on the airwaves and everywhere else but this is the Government's mess because it did not plan and there is no contingency or anything else. Now we are being asked to support the Bill today. I am not going to do it. I may not get a chance to speak again because I suspect other Members will want to make their point but I am simply not going to support the Bill because the Minister has made a complete pig's ear of it.

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