Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I do not want to get into a slagging match but if the Deputy is correct and the Minister has tweeted the comment that has been attributed to him about people being reckless, this it is entirely unacceptable during a debate in the Dáil, and particularly in the context of the failure by the Government to carry out any human rights assessment of the legislation, a point I have repeatedly made. Rather than speak for myself, let me quote the Irish Council for Civil Liberties:

Our position remains the same: the system is discriminatory and has been developed without any meaningful consideration of human rights. We know of no known human rights impact assessment having been carried out before its implementation, since July, or now ahead of its proposed extension...

ICCL believes vaccination, and all medical treatment, should be a choice...

To omit testing to the certificate system, unlike most of our peers across Europe...is deeply discriminatory. Across the EU, testing is available as an alternative to vaccination...

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