Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank everybody who was involved in dealing with the front-line services and the volunteers, the GAA clubs, the businesses, the Garda Síochána and everybody else who worked very hard and put their shoulder to the wheel. I also thank the tens of thousands of people who signed up to Be on Call for Ireland, but they were not respected. Only a handful of them were called up. Those people wanted to give their services to the country.

As this is our second last day in the convention centre, I thank the staff here, including an fear uasal Ó Dubhuir, ó Caiseal Mumhan. Mr. Dwyer is now retired. I was inquiring about him yesterday. He was chairperson when I came here first. The staff made us welcome. We railed against the move but the staff made us welcome. The ushers, gardaí and secretarial staff, from Mr. Peter Finnegan down, have really put their shoulders to the wheel and helped us all. We may not have been the easiest to manage at times. It is important to say that this week because they all helped us, from the front door right to the Chamber. I include the Garda Síochána in that regard.

I am really perplexed and confused by the Government. It is accepting this motion. I thank Mr. Brian Ó Domhnaill, Mr. David Mullins and Deputy McNamara, who is in a different group, the Independent Group, for their valuable input into this motion.

Here we are, with a docile Government again. It is not going to oppose the motion or debate it properly. It is implying it is a great motion and that it agrees with it, yet it will introduce this evening draconian, discriminatory legislation that will have had no pre-legislative scrutiny and that will not have been subject to debate. We had 45 minutes in total for Committee Stage. With the increase, there has been a doubling, and we have 140 minutes. All our groups will have only ten minutes each. On the second last day of this term, why the indecent haste? The Government states it wants to open up hospitality but it is going the wrong way about it.

This motion is an out. We moved it in the hope that it would convince backbenchers who are telling their constituents they want everything opened. They are voting in the opposite way. They got out the gap by not having to vote against this motion. The Government has been doing this very cleverly lately to take the heat off it. Tonight it will force through, under a guillotine, what many have described as horrible legislation.

The Government's move to systematically introduce a vaccine passport authorisation scheme to allow a person to enter a pub, restaurant or other place of hospitality, including a bus, is both unethical and discriminatory. It represents a very severe and intrusive plan to create unviable and unworkable segregation, with unvaccinated people forced to remain outdoors. It is an unconstitutional restriction of a person's right to bodily integrity and personal freedom. That is quite clear.

Covid passports would represent digital identity cards by the back door. It is quite obvious what is happening. We are giving public authorities, such as the Garda, access to biometric and healthcare data. This is the thin end of the wedge, particularly given that the public authorities in Ireland have not always graced themselves with glory concerning records. We saw HSE records dumped in tips and everywhere else, and there have been leaks and selective leaks. It is shocking.

The Government's approach and ongoing overreach have just gone too far. The move requiring us to show our health papers wherever we go is truly extraordinary. The Government says it wants to help us by opening up hospitality but its not voting against this motion is a total cop-out.

The system, if anyone adheres to it, seeks to divide the people of Ireland into two classes. Goodness knows, we have had that for long enough. Those who have received the vaccine and those who have not comprise the two classes. The demands being made are a violation of citizens' civil and constitutional rights under Bunreacht na hÉireann.

I remind the House again of the ceremony that I refused to attend in Dublin Castle last Sunday on behalf of our group. It was to commemorate the 100th anniversary of our freedom. How dearly that was fought for by people up and down the country, including Michael Collins, Seán Ó Treasaigh and "Dinny" Lacey. The first shots of the War of Independence were fired in Tipperary and now we are commemorating the Truce. The Government drafters and the Office of the Attorney General have drafted legislation that is totally taking away our rights and walking on the Constitution. I ask them to reflect calmly, coolly and collectively on where they are and the kind of trance they are in.

Ireland has experienced the longest and deepest lockdown in the world. At this point, when every other country has reopened indoor hospitality, Irish pubs, restaurants, cafés and other entertainment venues, such as arts centres, all of which have been closed for much of the past 16 months, including since December under the latest lockdown, are being forced to implement a draconian scheme whereby only the vaccinated may enter. Just think about it. All of Europe, including the United Kingdom, and the USA and Canada are allowing all indoor hospitality to return to normal. In fact, many places have been operating as normal for months.

In Ireland, the Government is banning the reopening of premises for indoor dining and has instead come up with a completely unworkable and ridiculous vaccine passport regime. It causes segregation and discrimination. The Minister of State, Deputy Feighan, who replied to us earlier, should note that.

In effect, the proposed arrangement will mean that unvaccinated staff members serving vaccinated customers will have to check paperwork to assess whether potential customers are vaccinated. You just could not make it up. If you asked children in junior infants to do it, they would not do it as badly. It could also mean that, due to the age requirements, gardaí will have to assess whether a potential restaurant customer is vaccinated.

In the proposed legislation, which is being rushed and not debated properly, the Minister for Health is having powers bestowed on him again to introduce any statutory instrument he likes to give any group, be it a private security company or Óglaigh na hÉireann, our Army, powers to enforce the legislation. The Rural Independent Group tabled an amendment in this regard. The powers being given represent the most dangerous part. We will be gone from this convention centre to the hills for the next several weeks and the Minister will be able to introduce anything he likes. We have seen the record of what he has introduced and the dangers. There is no proper sunset clause or scrutiny.

We hear that 300 HSE officials and 70 HSA officials are going to police the arrangements with An Garda Síochána but they can introduce any other cohort of people. I dread the thought that a private security firm might be given a job in this regard. Where is the democracy in that? Where is the Government's logic in that? It is not making it easy for anyone. It is total confusion after confusion. The Government led the hospitality sector up the garden path, stating it would be open last Monday week, but at the eleventh hour it said it would not be opened and that it, the Government, would work with it. Why did the Government not work with the sector over all the months for which it has been closed? Some of the businesses have been closed for 500 days. I am referring to good business people who want to give employment, pay their taxes and serve the public. The Government could not work with them. It just destroyed them.

The same applies to religious services of all faiths. They have been just banished again. People have wanted to make their confirmations but they have been postponed four times. People have wanted to make their first holy communion. These are sacraments that people value. They like to have these. Spiritual nourishment is so important. I salute the parish councils, priests, other clergymen and laypeople who have done such gallant work throughout the whole period on cleansing and making their places safe. Why are they not allowed to open those places? There is inbuilt, inherent discrimination in what is before us today. It is so discriminatory I could not really get words to describe it.

Consider the hospitals, including the maternity hospitals. Countless Deputies, including me, have asked the Taoiseach, Tánaiste and Minister for Health why what is going on is occurring. I had a Topical Issue matter on it this week. Despite the arrangements, little independent groups of hospitals are refusing partners, fathers or siblings the right to be with a prospective mother when they get good news or, worse, when they get very bad news, such as news of a miscarriage or a life-limiting condition. What is going on that the Government cannot even change this? Why is the HSE so out of control? Is NPHET so much in control, with its hands on the handlebars of power, that the Government cannot challenge it? When I challenged Dr. Holohan at a meeting, I was not answered and was rebutted. He deals with the lockdown on the basis of doing the science later. We have been operating on a wing and prayer and people have perished and are being destroyed. I refer to family businesses and family people.

What about the waiting lists for cancer care, mental services and orthodontic treatment, and what about the misdiagnoses? Deputy Connolly always refers to the absolute lack of respite. Of all times, this is a time when respite is needed. What about all this and the way we deny the nursing homes personal protective equipment? We actually took for the HSE equipment that was going to nursing homes. We should think of all the people who died in those centres.

Mar fhocal scoir, I appeal to the Government. I would prefer if it had the guts today to oppose this motion and not allow it because it is just playing a three-card trick on the people it represents. It is telling the people it agrees with the motion but tonight it is going to introduce the most draconian, anti-constitutional legislation ever introduced in this House. It would not be accepted in wartime. This is a war against the people, the people we are supposed to serve and who put us in this Parliament. I appeal to the Minister of State, in this last minute, to vote against this motion and put his money where his mouth is or else not introduce the Bill tonight. The House could come back on Friday or next week and debate it properly.

Words were attributed to me yesterday by members of the media. There was a story that I uttered certain words.

One word starts with an "A". I never said those words anywhere in my life. I would not even repeat the words here.

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