Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

I think it is incredible that a Bill that is supposed to be about the saving of lives has seemingly turned into a debate about the ending of other individual human beings' lives. Many people watching the debate will be quite confused.

On Government powers, if you give Government powers, as sure as night follows day, the Government will use those powers. That has been the way of every step during this pandemic.

On the pre-flight test regarding vaccination status, that is an admission that vaccines do not stop transmission. It is also an admission that it is now necessary to test people for access to places. It is an argument that we, in Aontú, have been making since the start of the debate on the introduction of the Covid pass. It is great to see that the Government has come onto that ground at last. Covid is spreading among vaccinated people quite regularly and normally in this country. The Covid pass has no effect in stopping that transmission.

The problem that I have with regard to the vaccination mentioned by the Minister is that he talked about PCR tests 72 hours before departure. During the week, the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage said that a person could get a PCR test in Ireland, fly out of Ireland, and come back within the 72 hours and use the pre-flight PCR test as the PCR test to get them back into the country.

Will the Minister confirm whether that is the case?

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