Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I would like the Minister's attention because the very first thing I want to do is publicly and humbly thank him and acknowledge a very important job he did, which was the help, kindness, care and consideration he gave to two small babies, Theo Whelan and baby Kate Mynard. As good as it is to come in here and attack the Minister and fight with him and say, "Minister, do this and do that", I publicly thank him for his involvement in that. He, his officials and others worked and helped to save those babies' lives. I will ask questions of the Minister but I will also stand up and publicly thank him. I got an opportunity another evening to mention it here, barely, but he is here now as the Minister for Health and I just say to him "thank you".

With that out of the way, I certainly do not agree with the question we are asked here because it is whether the public interest is being served by these extensions. We believe that it must be concluded that the public interest is not being served by giving the Government the powers to curtail people's rights and freedoms at a time when over 90% of our people are vaccinated. During this pandemic the Government has rushed some extraordinary laws through this House and signed into law some extraordinary regulations. These measures have curtailed people's freedoms in a most extraordinary way. The Garda has been given the power to do things we would never have thought it would be given. We believe that now the time has come to have people's individual freedoms restored and Garda powers returned to what they should be. The Government will use the Dáil to rubber-stamp these extraordinary measures.

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