Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. I welcome the Minister of Justice back to the Chamber after what was a very successful ministerial event over the summer. I am sure we all congratulate the Minister. While she was well covered in her absence, she is most welcome back.

On the legislation before the House, I, and my Sinn Féin colleagues, will be supporting the extension of the Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act. However, we do so with some slight reservations. It would be remiss of me if I did not raise the concerns of my colleagues and constituents with the Minister of State while we debate the Act. We accept that Covid-19 was not expected. We accept that it has been a century since any country faced a pandemic on the scale of this one, or indeed, one that has continued for as long as this has. However, it does not negate the responsibility of Government to plan, even for the most rare of eventualities. My colleague, Deputy Cullinane, has repeatedly raised his concerns about the lack of a stand-alone Bill which encompasses all restrictions and regulations associated with the Covid-19 pandemic.

This Bill specifically deals with outdoor dining and alcohol consumption, but it is part of a wider issue. We all accept that. Initially, when businesses were reopened in May and June 2021, the Government really pushed the outdoor dining narrative. It was warranted to get businesses trading again and to give ordinary people some semblance of a return to normality. That is not the issue that we have with it. Our concerns relate more to the attitude of the Government when it came to the reopening. It seemed to be the case that the Government was asking businesses to open up outside and get on with it. There was very little in the way of guidelines on how to cause minimum disruption for people, for instance, those with disabilities, when constructing the outdoor dining areas. Indeed, I am aware that the disability service providers, such as the National Council for the Blind, were among those who filled the knowledge gap for restaurants and café owners, and not the Government.

These are responsible business owners who want to do the right thing by their customers and also respect how shared public spaces are operated. I am aware that this Act goes some way to setting out the parameters of how outdoor dining should be conducted and detailing which body is responsible for oversight of dining areas and spaces, depending on whether they are on public or private land. However, it is not acceptable to us, stakeholders or ordinary members of the public that Government is using these pieces of emergency legislation, which must be renewed repeatedly, to govern such technical pieces of so-called pandemic legislation.

Indeed, we often think of the example of Covid vaccination certificates, which is an issue that has come up regularly in recent times. People going into public houses, cafés or restaurants are asked to provide proof of vaccination. There are issues around that. In some cases, the certificates are not being checked often enough and when they are being checked in some cases people are not being asked for their identification. There is a lot of controversy around the issue. There is some resistance from people who feel that their private health is somehow under scrutiny. While we understand all of that, we also understand that there is a pandemic, there must be regulations and people must abide by them. The point that most people make is that just because someone has a vaccine certificate to prove they have been vaccinated does not mean they do not have Covid and are not contagious in respect of that. There is no checking of that particular issue. That is why one of the things the Government seriously needs to look at is the whole issue of how more testing can be done so that when people are entering premises, they are tested to ensure that they do not have Covid, rather than determining whether or not they are vaccinated.

One of the biggest issues that people will remember, and the real origin of this Bill, was the utter confusion in respect of outdoor alcohol consumption caused for members of the Judiciary and members of An Garda Síochána last summer, when nobody knew exactly what the rules were or where we were. That is where this Bill comes from, which reflects a certain sense of poor planning in this area. The Departments of Justice, Health and Housing, Local Government and Heritage failed to foresee the ambiguity that the practice of outdoor dining would cause. While those difficulties have since been clarified with this Act, it highlights a failure to plan and adequately forecast what the public might need as things progressed. I understand that amendments might be needed and I wish to be clear that Sinn Féin will accept the public health advice available, as it has always done. That is what we all need to do, regardless of what our views or individual concerns may be. There are experts who are putting forward their case and we must abide by that.

This is why I repeat the call and that of my colleague, Deputy Cullinane, for the Government to introduce one single stand-alone piece of legislation to cover all the various amendments and extensions related to Covid. If I am honest, this Bill represents a failure to plan and prepare for an issue that cuts right across Government policy. This failure to plan is not just in respect of Covid-related matters. Indeed, I see it when I am using the health services in my constituency, as do the people I represent. We have a fantastic healthcare staff, but there is poor planning and resourcing of the system in which they work. It was not too long ago that I stood in this Chamber and discussed the stark staffing issues facing Sligo University Hospital. That issue was also caused by poor planning and poor resource planning. I see the same issue with An Garda Síochána. There are fine people working on the front line to prevent crime and target criminals, but they struggle with the lack of resourcing and indeed with an ICT system that is outdated.

While we support the extension of this Act, we do so with some reservations. We encourage the Minister of State and Cabinet members to consider drafting stand-alone legislation to cover all of this.

See this speech in context