Dáil debates

Wednesday, 14 July 2021

Health (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages

 

7:12 pm

Photo of Paul McAuliffePaul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I intend to speak against the amendment. Before that, however, there is something deeply wrong with the rules of this House. We cannot accuse each other of lying but we can accuse each other of war crimes. There is something broken in the rules of the House. The Leas-Cheann Comhairle was not in the Chair when it happened but I know a lie when I hear it. There were no war crimes committed during this pandemic.

I speak against the amendment because I believe that the Minister and the Government do not wish to have these powers in place for any longer than is required. I say that not only because it is my belief, but because of the proven track record over the last more than a year when we have dealt with Covid-19. We have never leaned hard into over-regulating the response to Covid-19. When other countries were insisting on people applying for a licence to leave their home, we did not go down that road. We always tried to work with the public because we do not believe that over-regulating and over-implementing restrictive measures are the solution. That has always been the case, so I take the Government's word that this Bill is not a sneaky way of introducing a measure that will be with us in the long term. I do not know why the Government would do that and I do not know the benefits of why it would do it.

I know the benefits of taking the public health approach that has been taken. It has always been the middle ground. We have not leaned into the zero Covid argument, nor have we taken the let-it-rip approach we have seen in the United Kingdom.

The people who have spoken in favour of the amendment have come from multiple positions. They oppose the Bill but they do so from different positions. Some people grossly underestimate the impact Covid has had on our society and the threat it is. Other people would rather we lean harder into a zero-Covid approach. In the middle, we have the main Opposition party that seems to have a different position on Covid depending on the whim and mood. The front page of a newspaper will state they are asking to open the pubs and the next month the headline will state they suggest locking down the country. I never know how they are going to come at it but I know it will be always with a populist approach. The Government has not done that. We have done the right thing when we have needed to do the right thing.

I want to respond to Deputy Boyd Barrett's contribution because I thought it was one of the most honest put forward by an Opposition speaker. He said in order to avoid discrimination he would rather not open up now and that he would rather wait. I hope I am paraphrasing him correctly. This is the gist of what he said. This is an honest interpretation. I ask him to consider the word "discriminate". To me it means to treat people differently unjustly. We have treated people differently in this pandemic from the very start but not unjustly. We asked people aged over 70 to stay in their homes when others did not have to. Yes, it was unfair but not unjust. We asked people not to go to school and college when we allowed people go to work. We asked people in some industries to close but have allowed other industries to thrive. This is not because we were unjust but because that was the best way to deal with the pandemic at the time. I do not believe this discriminates. I believe it does treat groups differently but not because of their age. It is because of the protection they have gained from the vaccine.

This is not the first time we have treated people differently on public health grounds. We allow people to smoke outside a public building but we do not allow them to smoke inside a public building. We allow some people to buy alcohol and tobacco and we prohibit people of a different age buying alcohol and tobacco because it is a good public health decision. Many people here are saying this should all have been sorted and we should have known what we were doing. The Government was planning for a full reopening of society with no passes or restrictions. The entire continent was planning on that but Delta came. When a variant comes, as in every other phase of the pandemic, we pivot, change and do whatever we can to pick the middle road between the hard Covid approach and letting it rip. We have tried to do the sensible thing, which is what we are doing here.

I am not sure I would have supported this measure three or four months ago. Being given the option to show my phone as I walk into a restaurant so I can go inside and be safe is not the hardest thing I have had to do in this pandemic. God, people have had to do some really hard things in this pandemic. People have gone to funerals with only a handful of people there. This will not have been the hardest thing we will have asked the Irish people to do. It is not an issue on which we are discriminating. Tonight I will vote to give 2 million people more freedom to do more in this country. This number is growing every week. I say to young people that I understand it is unfair they will have to eat and drink outside rather than inside but the vaccine is coming to them in the coming weeks. In fact, it will probably come within a shorter time than the length of time we asked people aged over 70 to stay cocooned. I will vote in favour of this to give people freedom.

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