Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As my colleague, Deputy Cullinane, said, when the Covid outbreak first began and restrictions were introduced in response to the emergency, there was a lot of political unity because we did not know what we were dealing with and we were all pulling in the same direction. We agreed with some measures introduced by the Government, but there were times when there were disagreements and we challenged that when debates where allowed. We challenged the Government the last time the emergency powers were extended. At the time, we debated the reasons some people in the hospitality sector could work in a restaurant but could not eat in the same restaurant. We have moved on since then.

Some 87% of the eligible population are fully vaccinated. We need to recognise and reflect on that because we are moving out of the emergency and people are becoming optimistic. One can sense from the atmosphere in the country that people's moods are lifting. As the Sinn Féin spokesperson on mental health, I deal with people all the time and they now see light at the end of the tunnel. Extending these emergency powers sends out the wrong message. The Minister said he may not use these emergency powers and hopes he will not have to use them. It is as though we gave him a blank cheque the last time. This is a blank cheque that he will probably never have to cash.

We need to put our energy into how we will move out of Covid and into the next stage. We need to devise an exit plan for Covid. It should be for the 32 counties, on an all-island basis. We saw that having different restrictions and measures in both jurisdictions did not work. We need unity and an all-island approach to this matter.

We will also have to consider the long-term effects of Covid because we do not know how long Covid will impact on society and the Minister for Health's remit. I have a personal disclaimer to make on this because I have an interest in this topic as a person who recently had Covid. I visited my doctor yesterday and he told me we do not know what the long-term effects will be. I still have some lingering effects from Covid and hopefully, day by day, I will get better, but we do not know and that is the issue. We need to put in place a plan for how we will assist people and society to move on from the effects of Covid. We do not know its effects, as the Minister said, because it is a new virus.

In my last few minutes, I will comment on the extension of other emergency health legislation in respect of Part 5 of the Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (Covid-19) Act 2020 and its impact in respect of the Mental Health Act 2001. This provision was originally brought in to reduce the number of interactions that people were going to have in the context of Covid-19. It allows mental health tribunals to be reduced to a one-member paper-based tribunal and for minimum personal interaction between the relevant people. Since this measure was brought in, my understanding is that more than 800 tribunals have taken place and this emergency legislation has not been used once. It is, therefore, a power that has been extended but not used, so there is no point to it. It is proposed to extend the measure until 2022. I call for it to be repealed. It is not necessary and could have many unintended consequences. Representatives of Mental Health Reform stated at a recent meeting of the Joint Committee on Health that "the legislation in itself continues to be problematic in its removal of safeguards for service users and its infringements of service users' rights, [such as] [...] the right to a tribunal". I urge the Minister to look at that.

See this speech in context