Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will speak to the amendment. I fully appreciate its intent. I cannot accept it because of technical concerns, such as the lack of definition in respect of certain matters, but I believe that what the Deputy is seeking to do is entirely appropriate and reasonable. I would like to commit to two things, to go further. First, I have a report on the operation of mandatory hotel quarantine to date. It does not go as far as Deputy Connolly desires in terms of human rights analysis, which is a matter we need to take seriously, but it focuses on hotel quarantine to date in some detail. I would like to share that and I will ask the Department to do so.

I hope to God not only that we will not need an extension, but also that we will not need to bring it in in the first place. If we end up back here having to debate and potentially vote on an extension of those powers, I will absolutely commit to asking the Department to provide all colleagues with whatever analysis is possible on the operation to that date. This can inform the debate. If we want to do a session at the health committee, maybe we could do that too. We could also do a technical briefing. I want to embrace trying to provide more briefings. I cannot accept the amendment but I am happy to commit to doing something equivalent, and to go a bit further on it with regard to providing the information we have to date.

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