David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will be very brief on this amendment. I commend the Deputy on tabling this amendment as it is a very important one which I was hoping the Minister would accept. We have already talked about what this legislation is intended to do. The Minister set out the rationale for that and it is not going to stop this new variant from coming. If we were to introduce mandatory hotel quarantine, this would be to slow it down. These are the layers of protection the Minister talked about. If that is the case, then we can make exceptions in very limited circumstances.

When we last talked about mandatory hotel quarantine, one of the things that was said to us was that it was the hard cases when they happened which would become problematic. For the vast majority of people it is an inconvenience, yet it is a curtailment of their civil liberties for a time period. For the majority of people, however, I would think that it is something that they would be prepared to do if it meant that it was playing a part in the overall arsenal of tools that we have to deal with Covid-19. In circumstances, as the legislation states, where a persons is come back from “unavoidable, imperative and time-sensitive medical treatment” or a termination of pregnancy, I have to say to the Minister that an exception could be made.

I support this amendment and I hope this Minister does, too.

I welcome some of the points the Minister made earlier in relation to more engagement with the Opposition. I am still not clear what that is. We have been talking about these issues for a year and a half. We have heard lots of promises and the Minister has made promises. They simply have not materialised. It would be important for the Minister to write to Members of the Oireachtas to set out what he is going to do when he makes statutory instruments and regulations. At the very least, we should receive an email to tell us that the Minister has signed them and they are up on the website. That would be a start, and the absolute minimum. That does not even happen. I am interested to hear what it is the Minister is going to do, as opposed to him just telling us here that he might do more.

I am fully supportive of this amendment.

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