Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire. I wish to begin by placing on the record of the House my unhappiness at conducting legislative scrutiny in this hurried manner. It is not how we should be conducting the business of this revising Chamber. We are waiving pre-legislative scrutiny and there has been no regulatory impact assessment. The decision to take all Stages in one sitting is all for practice. It means, for example, that no amendment, no matter how perfect or valuable it may be, has absolutely any chance of being considered or passed by Government. That is highly disrespectful to all of us. I cannot understand why, for example, we could not have taken Committee and Remaining Stages on a day next week, as suggested this morning. That would still have been timely in terms of the opening of the pubs.

The rigorous focus on this emergency legislation, while arguably necessary, stands in stark contrast to the complete absence of Government action in tackling actual existing causes of Covid-19 clusters in meat factories and other agri-processing sectors. Where is the emergency legislation to protect our meat factory workers? Why is the Government requiring publicans to follow a rigorous set of rules and procedures while not even requiring meat factories to have to report instances of Covid-19 to the Health and Safety Authority? The public would be shocked to realise that there is no requirement on meat factories to report instances of Covid-19 to the Health and Safety Authority. That is the case because of a change made by the then Minister for Health, Deputy Leo Varadkar, in 2016. It beggars belief, given the track record of meat factories in recent months, that this requirement is not in place. I call on the Minister for Justice and Equality to address that issue in her response.

Where is the emergency legislation to give statutory sick pay to all workers? That is already the norm across much of Europe.

Some 25 years after the beef tribunal it would appear that the beef barons remain untouchable when it comes to the rules and regulations that the rest of us have to follow. They can enjoy the benefits of bonded labour thanks to the disgraceful work permit system operating by the Government. They can pay poverty wages. They can sack anyone who dares to join a trade union. They can threaten their largely immigrant workforce with impunity and with the fact that if they do not like the terms and conditions on offer, the factory will get another planeload of workers in to replace them. That is an actual quote from one factory, as exposed on Claire Byrne's radio show last week.There is no emergency legislation for those workers or special sitting of the Seanad. I guess in the big scheme of things, these workers - so many of them new to our country - just do not matter to this Government. I should also cite the dreadful experience of direct provision residents with regard to Covid-19. Again, I will not hold my breath for the Government to line up emergency legislation or a special sitting for those poor people either.

This Bill will give additional enforcement powers to gardaí with regard to licensed premises and certain private membership clubs. It has a sunset clause, which as the Minister has said, is essential. It is important to say the vast majority of licensed premises and clubs have behaved very well and gone to significant effort and no little expense in ensuring Covid-19 protocols are followed. All those premises have been let down by a small minority of pubs and premises that have not complied, and a number of these premises have been highlighted across various media in recent weeks.

The additional powers being given to gardaí in this Bill are significant and, under normal circumstances, Sinn Féin would not support such a significant increase in powers. However, these are not normal times and the truth is enforcement powers are a necessary step on the road to getting our pubs open again. There is a real incongruity in the current status quoas some pubs can open because they serve food or have managed to procure a supply of pizza while other so-called wet pubs must remain closed and watch as their customers go elsewhere. There is something fundamentally unfair about this. As my colleague, Deputy Martin Kenny, pointed out last week, if every pub in a village or town could open, there would be fewer people in each premises.

The powers in this Bill to enter and, where necessary, close a licensed premises are, on balance, necessary to give gardaí the power to make enforcement a reality and tackle that small minority of premises that would seek to disregard Covid-19 protocols and guidelines.

I will briefly go through the key sections of the Bill. Section 3 provides for entry without warrant of a member of An Garda Síochána to a relevant premises for inspection and other purposes. Again, in these special circumstances, Sinn Féin is prepared to support this. Sections 4 to 7, inclusive, as explained by the Minister, set out the new powers for immediate closure, emergency closures and compliance notices. Perhaps most significantly, sections 11 and 12 set out grounds for objection to the renewal of licences. Again, I stress that these are measures we only support under these special circumstances and for a strictly limited period.

I hope that the Government, health authorities and vintners can work out better medium-term arrangements to replace this emergency legislation in the coming months. In the meantime, we are reluctantly prepared to facilitate the passage of this legislation as a means to ensure compliance and facilitate the broader reopening of pubs in a fortnight. There are some thoughtful amendments to work through on Committee Stage, most of which we are prepared to support. However, we already know this process is effectively a charade, as the Government has no intention of giving any consideration to them.

Before finishing, I will briefly reference the idea of hysteria. We should be clear that there has been no hysteria in the Chamber this afternoon. Like Senator Ward, I was struck by some of the quite bizarre statements made in the Dáil last week by a minority of so-called populist politicians very much on the right wing of the spectrum. It is a concern as there seems to be a conflation of ideas and a kind of anti-State, anti-mask and anti-immigrant movement. Sinn Féin will be steadfast in opposing that level of hysteria and it is regrettable that we had to see that hysteria in the Dáil last week. Sinn Féin will support this Bill, although we are very disappointed with today's process.