Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 1:

To insert the following after "9th day of February, 2022": "and any new regulations introduced under this legislation shall be brought before the Dáil for prior approval."

The Minister is today seeking yet a further extension in the special powers that were granted to him last year in dire emergency circumstances. It is true that when the initial legislation was agreed by the Dáil we knew very little about Covid-19. Our level of knowledge has increased greatly since then and we know there are many other things that have to be done to reduce the incidence of Covid, even though many of those things have not been taken on board by the Government. I will refer to those momentarily.

These emergency powers are very wide-ranging and gave the Minister carte blancheto introduce whatever regulations were deemed necessary. While people were prepared to do that in the very difficult emergency circumstances last year, the situation has changed somewhat. Every time we have discussed these draconian powers, I have always made the point that prior to the introduction of any regulations under this legislation, the Minister should bring those regulations to the Dáil. We should be able to scrutinise them and we should have a role in deciding whether they should get the go-ahead. Experience has borne out the wisdom of that kind of approach.

On occasion, the introduction of regulations can only be described as chaotic, for example, the enforcement regulations for the Garda. Gardaí were being told to go out and enforce these before the regulations were actually passed at a time there was no training for the enforcement of regulations. There was no publicity for them. There was no briefing on them for Members or anybody else. Very often the Minister and other Ministers were not au faitwith the provisions of those regulations.

The Minister was given a blank cheque, which I believe was wrong. The regulations should have been brought back before the House. What he has done, and is proposing to continue to do, has wide-ranging implications for people's fundamental freedoms. There is a need for much greater scrutiny and much greater consultation in respect of these. I ask him to consider the Social Democrats' amendments to each of the three motions. These amendments propose that no new regulations be introduced without prior Dáil approval. The Minister has had considerable co-operation from this side of the House and in that spirit of co-operation I ask him to consider supporting these amendments as reasonable safeguards.

We know little about what has happened in respect of enforcement. No data are available on the level of enforcement of specific regulations by gardaí. For example, we have no data on prosecutions, which is not a healthy situation from the point of view of accountability for the enforcement of law. We should be getting regular reports on the extent of enforcement of these draconian powers.

I have grave concern over the Government's response to what is happening with Covid. In its most recent letter, NPHET has indicated that since early October, case counts are following the pessimistic scenario. In its letter, it made projections that during November case numbers would be likely to be up at between 2,500 and 3,000. We were up at the top of that range in October and case numbers are continuing to rise. The numbers in hospitals and in ICU are concerning. Apart from that are the implications of downstream cancellation of essential surgeries. Cancer care, heart surgeries and other procedures are being sacrificed. Separate to the cost associated with people who have Covid and are in serious condition, enormous costs are being paid by other people who are being denied access to regular healthcare, which is a matter of real concern.

My concern is that numbers are going in the wrong direction and nothing the Minister is proposing to do will change the direction of those worrying figures. He hopes the figures will plateau at the end of November. I do not know what that is based on. Why will they plateau and what will happen if they do not? There seems to be a significant element of wishful thinking on the part of Government. The Minister is repeating the mistakes of the past by relying almost exclusively on vaccinations. While it is great to have vaccinations and boosters, they will not solve the problem on their own. The other measures need to be prioritised. The Government continues to ignore the critical issue of ventilation in schools. The same applies in hospitality and in the workplace. If the Government continues to do that, the figures will continue to rise, which is unacceptable. The Minister needs to stop the wishful thinking and start doing the things that we know work.

Finally, I quote Orla Hegarty who wrote, "The tools of prevention are well understood and available, many at no cost." Why are we not using those tools?

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