Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Go raibh maith agat a Cheann Comhairle. I thank you for your fíor-fháilte. I am glad to see you are back in full swing as well.

This evening, we are once more in a situation where restrictions are being rolled out. They have been drip-fed to us all week which has put businesses into disarray. People are contacting the offices of all politicians about the cancellations and the uncertainty. I am not talking only about hospitality but about boutiques, shops and clothes shops. People were spending a little for Christmas. Deposits have been paid and people are now looking for them back, and whatever else. The people have gone through hell and back.

Either the vaccine passes are useless and we should get rid of them, or they work and we certainly do not need further restrictions. It must be one or the other. Both situations cannot be true at the same time. However, this Government, while acting as though the vaccine passes do not work by implementing restrictions, continues to discuss the extension and widespread use of other restrictions. It is bizarre. Where is the logic? Where is the science it always talks about? The Minister has failed dismally to get this situation under control. NPHET has failed in its duties and has lost the support of the public. It lost it a long time ago. The Government has failed to build up hospital bed capacity and ICU capacity despite being given the resources to do so. I put on record the HSE and the Department of Health got an extra €3.884 billion on top of the €20 billion-odd they had for 2020. That is not to mention what they have spent this year which we are just coming to the close of. I shudder to think we have so little capacity in our ICUs and that it has been so little increased. The waste has been shocking. The Government has failed to build up hospital bed capacity and ICU capacity despite being given the huge resources, as I said, and huge additional powers that are in this legislation and which I will refer to in a minute.

Thanks to a parliamentary question from Deputy Tóibín, we know 26 new outbreaks have taken place in our nursing homes, 81 in hospital settings and 27 in residential care for people with disabilities. These are places we need to protect and have not protected. There have been seven in refuges and places of respite for women. However, once again we are picking on hospitality. It is an easy group to pick on and one that has been hammered all the way through although there have been very few cases in hospitality. I have the figures somewhere but cases in hotels, pubs and so on would not come up to the figure for hospital outbreaks. I think there have been about 12 hospitality outbreaks in all in the last four weeks. It is shocking.

I have serious concerns about the powers of NPHET, its level of control over almost every element of Irish society at present and its lack of accountability. A very eminent paediatrician contacted me today saying paediatricians were not consulted about the mask-wearing enforcement for children. Although it is only a requirement, the Government is putting the fear of God into school boards of management and principals. I have been contacted my numerous such people who have a duty of care to the children, and they know that. They have huge responsibilities and they know that as well. The boards are voluntary ones that do tremendous work, as do the principals and their staff, and now they are in this perilous situation. I understand NPHET has no paediatrician among its extensive advisory groups. HIQA has advised them twice already, I think, not to mask young children, that it was not good for them, and that advice has been thrown in the bin. Thus, if we want to use HIQA to tell the nursing homes to do something then we do that but when it gives advice NPHET does not like we just bin it. Who holds NPHET to account when it is wide of the mark? When there are leaks and misinformation coming out of NPHET, leading to despair within an industry, who does it answer to? When NPHET ignores bodies such as HIQA, implements restrictions on our children with no debate, no requirement for legislation, no pre-legislative scrutiny and no parental consent how can we say we are operating in a functional and democratic society? We clearly are not.

The Minister, and his Taoiseach, Tánaiste and Cabinet, have abdicated their responsibility to NPHET. Sideshows and competition for the airwaves are going on. If it is not one of them, it is the other and the mixed messaging has been appalling. Members of NPHET have no business being on the airwaves. This Government has been duly elected and voted in, not thanks to me, as part of a cobbled up coalition. It is hiding behind NPHET. The Government wants to let it do this because it thinks it is good or it does not have the gumption to face NPHET down when it needs to. Yes, listen to its science, when it is correct, and its advice, but the Government makes decisions for our people. I asked the Minister previously in this House, when he was going to sign all these statutory instruments that are in this legislation tonight - when he was in the Opposition he railed against them - and knowing the conventions, who was pushing his hand? Is it the heavy hand of big pharma that is pushing the Minister to sign instrument after instrument, one more draconian than the next?

As I said, we are again facing severe restrictions, with Christmas coming on top of them, when people want to be happy and celebrate the holy season and the birth of Our Lord. The Government tells us more than 93% of our population is vaccinated. Where does this end? We have arrived at a situation whereby the hospitality sector is once again facing frightening restrictions and NPHET wants to tell the public who they can and cannot have in their homes. Will we get serious? This is not fair. People in the hospitality sector and other industries will be forced onto the PUP but what about all the people coming off those payments? They will not be able to get back on them again and they need to be supported into the future and the new year. What about the music and entertainment industry and many other areas I could talk about all night long?

I will refer to this draconian legislation the Government is implementing. We only got the Bill yesterday and a briefing note late last Thursday for what is a conglomeration of four previous Acts now put into one. The Minister did not call it an omnibus, but he could. It is giving the Government new and dangerous powers. Power is a dangerous thing. The Minister has never sat in the offices of the Department of Health without these powers. He does not know what it is like to be an ordinary Minister with normal powers. The extension of section 2, Part 3 of the Health (Preservation and Protection and other Emergency Measures in the Public Interest) Act 2020, which amends the principal 1974 Act by the insertion of section 38A, raises serious legal and ethical concerns surrounding the detention and isolation of persons in certain circumstances. These are not my words but those of legal experts who have voluntarily helped me to put this together tonight.

I remind the Minister that internment was introduced in 1971 in the Six Counties. Section 38A contravenes Article 5, the right to liberty, Article 6, the right to a fair trial and Article 8, the right to private and family life of the European Convention on Human Rights and Article 40.4 of the Constitution. Has the Minister read or looked at all this? Who is drafting this legislation for him? Why does he think he has the power to bring in instruments that deal with all this? There is no sufficient evidence base for the extension of this sweeping power, which provides a medical officer with the power to make an order, in writing, for:

the detention and isolation of such person in a hospital or other place specified in the order [we do not know what that is yet] (including ... other hospital[s] or other place as may subsequently be appropriate and specified in the order) [which the Minister may fill in and sign with no recourse to the Dáil] until such time as ... [that] medical officer certifies that the person's detention is no longer required for the purposes of this section.

That is quite draconian by any yardstick. The medical officer can invoke the powers under section 38A(1) where he or she:

believes in good faith that -

(a) a person is a potential source of infection, and

(b) the person is a potential risk to public health, and

(c) his or her detention and isolation is appropriate in order to- (i) prevent, limit, minimise or slow the spread of Covid-19, and

(ii) minimise the risk to human life and public health,

and (d) such [a] person cannot be effectively isolated, refuses to remain or appears unlikely to remain in his or her home or other accommodation ... agreed, by the Health Service Executive.

The Minister should pay attention to the Government's own services. I just quoted the figures, courtesy of Deputy Tóibín, of outbreaks in hospital settings in the past four weeks and compared them with outbreaks in other areas. They are minuscule in those other areas compared with what is going on under the Minister's watch, yet he is penalising the people. The necessity of the extension of this measure has not been demonstrated. In accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2014, the Health Service Executive should and must provide details of how many orders have been made under section 38A(1) since the inception of the emergency legislation in March 2020. We have not got those details and I hope the Minister knows it. It is in the interests of transparency, openness and the public interest for such information to be published before any debate on the necessity to extend power to detain and isolate a person, depriving him or her of his or her rights to a fair trial and to his or her private family life and liberty. Is that why there was no pre-legislative scrutiny of this Bill and why it was not brought to committee? The fact is the Minister is bringing together three or four Acts that have had no pre-legislative scrutiny, were rushed through the Dáil with little debate and passed because of the Government majority. Did he not want pre-legislative scrutiny because he might be asked these questions?

According to section 38A(2) a medical officer in exercising this power shall have regard to "the fact that Covid-19 is recently declared by the World Health Organisation to be a pandemic". It was declared a pandemic in March 2020. How long will the clock be stopped at 2020? The WHO also has many questions to answer and Minister cannot say this is a necessary implement now, some 21 months later. It is now 21 months since the announcement of these emergency powers and the State has had ample opportunity to put in place public health measures for the purpose of preventing, limiting, diminishing or slowing the spread of Covid-19, referred to under section 38A, with the consequential effect that this measure is no longer justifiable. Such a power can only be justified if the State can show a grave risk to life. Recent statistics issued by the Health Protection Surveillance Centre, HPSC, showed a dramatic decrease, thank God, in Covid-19 related deaths since 2020. These are the basic, naked facts and the science proves them, but the Minister uses science selectively.

The reasoning and rationale for this measure no longer exists and the State has not provided sufficient proof to justify any extension of such a draconian power. The existence of the Omicron variant, and ever-emerging new variants, is not sufficient for such powers to remain in a democratic society. We will get variants, like all the storms, with a different acronym for every one of them. The very fact the medical officer can make an order under section 38A(1) if a person is a potential source of infection and a potential risk to public health raises fundamental issues surrounding the subjective implementation of these terms. It is deeply concerning that one medical officer has the power to make such an order based on his or her belief, in good faith, that a person is a potential source of infection. In effect, this means that a person can be made subject to a detention and isolation order without testing positive for Covid-19. That is truly shocking in my opinion and in the opinion of the legal experts, whom I thank for formulating that opinion with me. This means a person could be detained and isolated by a medical officer as a result of that officer's subjective view of what constitutes a potential source of infection and a potential risk to public health.

There are no safeguards in place to protect the fundamental rights and freedoms of the person who could be deprived of his or her liberty on the word of said medical officer. For example, in this current climate, it is not beyond the imagination that a medical officer could make such an order for detention and isolation under section 38A(1), simply because a person is unvaccinated, for whatever reason, whether it is because he or she is unable to take the vaccine or because of choice. The power of detention process is open to abuse as the Act requires only one medical officer to make an order for detention. That is quite serious and dangerous in a so-called democracy and a so-called republic. Under section 38(A), the medical officer:

may in writing order the detention and isolation of such person in a hospital or other place specified in the order (including such other hospital or other place as may subsequently be appropriate and specified in the order).

You could end up in the Curragh Camp or anywhere.

It will be up to the Minister's officials and his hand to sign the order. Does the Minister realise what he is taking upon himself? I think he does. I think he is punch-drunk with these powers and he has not a clue how to run the Department or rein in or deal with the pandemic in the medical system.

I will continue from where I left off: "(including such other hospital or other place as may subsequently be appropriate and specified in the order) until such time as the medical officer certifies that the person's detention is no longer required for the purposes of this section". I do not see that as anything different from what happened in the North in 1971. The extensive power to detain a person in any place specified in the order is not defined under the Act, which effectively means that a person could be detained anywhere at the discretion of the medical officer. There are no definitions. Most legislation has definitions and appeal systems. This is more rushed legislation. There has been no pre-legislative scrutiny on it. The Government is getting away with blue murder - if it gets away with this and if enough people vote for it. I hope they will not. I and my colleagues in the Rural Independent Group certainly will not.

The Act does not specify the maximum period of detention, which is also very serious. It states that a medical officer may, in writing, order the detention and isolation of a person in a hospital until such time as the medical officer certifies that the person's detention is no longer required. In other words, that person would be there at the whim of the medical officer. The medical officer is under a duty to review the detention no later than 14 days. The detained person can be incarcerated for 14 days. He or she has no right to request a review by another person other than that medical officer, not even another medical physician, but there are no details on this process. That breaches the rules of fair procedure, due process and natural justice. Has the Minister ever heard of those? Has he lost sight of them all? He was Independent, like me, then he was with the Social Democrat and then he jumped to Fianna Fáil. Then, through whatever sleazy deal, he became Minister for Health. Has he lost his moral compass and his respect for the people's rights and the Constitution? He must have done.

The State has failed to justify the proportionality and necessity for such a far-reaching measure, depriving people of their right to liberty. That is very serious 100 years after the likes of Treacy, Breen, Liam Lynch and Michael Collins fought so hard and unfortunately died in the War of Independence and the Civil War and all the people who sacrificed their lives. I have heard people here looking for people to ring snitch lines. That has come from parties I am very surprised with. They are looking for people to report on people and so on. We are dividing society and creating an apartheid and it is totally wrong.

The variant is not a specific enough reason for these measures. We have some clinical trial data from the pre-Alpha strains and lab data for Delta. We may overlook some data, but we have no epidemiological information that the vaccination has had any impact on the epidemic. For Omicron, the genetic data suggest the vaccines may not work. It will take at least two weeks to find out whether they work in the labs. As the example of Delta has shown, even lab data are not enough to justify any restrictions or mandates. We need evidence that the restrictions and mandates have an effect. Just having them there is not good enough. It is not good enough for the Minister to do what he is doing just because he wants these measures in place and likes his powers and wants to keep them to beat down our resilient, brilliant people, many of whom we have so sadly lost. Even one life lost is sad, but many people have succumbed to this virus. A significant number of people have died in nursing homes and hospitals. I have called time and time again for an internationally led investigation of what happened and the incarceration that went on here. I believe the Hague will have to be invoked and that people will have to be brought before the world courts there.

The UK and Ireland had a narrow peak in late January and a nadir in late May. The EU's nadir was a month later. For the current wave, this means that Ireland's deaths, thankfully, are flat and not going up as in the EU, thank God. The UK and Ireland are past the peak of the Delta variant. That is the science and they are the facts, thankfully. The number of deaths per million per day is 1,000 in the EU, which is horrific, 100 in the UK and ten in Ireland. The 1:10 Ireland-UK ratio per capitahas been the same for the past 18 months. There is ample science if the Minister wants to listen to it. The people put their shoulders to the wheel and invoked the sense of the meitheal of our good old country of Ireland and helped one another, ag cabhrú le gach duine, but now they are downtrodden and broken and the Minister is trying to kill their spirit and their resolve. The Government has that done to many sections of society such as our music, our culture, ár dteanga and many other areas. I ask the Minister to withdraw this legislation and to bring it back to pre-legislative scrutiny. It is time to give people hope. Ní neart go cur le chéile. Together we can fight this and go on honestly and truthfully, facing the people with truth.

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