Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for being with us today to go through this important and necessary Bill. My colleague, Senator Murphy, outlined the necessity of implementing legislation to ensure that we live in as safe a society as possible. The numbers are concerning, with 30,164 cases and 1,781 deaths to date. We are all very concerned at the number of cases to date and at the daily increase in new cases we are seeing, particularly here in Dublin. It is only right that we introduce a long term plan for living alongside Covid-19. The most important issue for society, now that we have reopened our schools, is to keep them open. We also want to see people getting back to work. We want to protect lives and livelihoods. We are engaged in a very delicate balancing act, with the overarching aim of ensuring the health and safety of our population, particularly the most vulnerable members. We must try to effect as much compliance as possible so that we can continue to reopen society.

The measures in this Bill are proportionate and, most importantly, temporary. Let us hope that the powers provided will be used judiciously. Notwithstanding the public health concerns, we must bear in mind those in the pub trade who have suffered a huge blow to their livelihood over the past six months. Indeed, coming from Kildare, which has suffered greatly in the last few weeks, I am particularly conscious of the hammer blow dealt by Covid-19 to our pub industry. We have 179 pubs in our county, many of which are family owned and some are run by more than one generation of the same family. Up to 400 families have been impacted by pub closures. As of today, pubs have been closed for 178 days. The news that our pubs are going to reopen on 21 September is very welcome. Many of the pubs in our country have been driven into mortgage default and are at real risk of not reopening.

Our pubs are the hubs of our communities. They are an integral part of the social fabric of communities and towns. For many, pubs are a vital meeting point. In many ways, they are also part of our rites of passage. We were talking earlier about young people not having the same rites of passage in the context of leaving school. I remember going for my first drink with my dad to a family-owned pub in Rathangan, Fullam's, and what a rite of passage that was. So many people have not had the opportunity to have that rite of passage. People have not had the chance to meet neighbours, to have social conversations or to have small meetings. The reopening will be very welcome indeed but I hope it is too late for the whole pub trade.

It is important to remember that the vast majority of pub owners have been compliant with existing restrictions.This legislation is only needed for the tiny minority who do not observe public health guidelines. As I said earlier, I have huge empathy for pub owners. I am in favour of this legislation, as are the pub owners, having spoken to many of them over recent days. They themselves believe that the Garda needed additional enforcement powers to deal with breaches of the Covid-19 regulations. We have all heard of shebeens operating and people gathering and travelling to where they know drink would be available and where we know that people have not been observing social distancing. This is completely wrong. It is only right and fair that those who are operating within the law know there will be consequences for those who break it.

I do not believe that pubs have received the necessary supports they needed. They needed to have more supports given to them. It is unfair that the so-called wet pubs have been put into the same bracket as nightclubs.

We have to live with Covid-19. We must take personal responsibility and we have to trust people and situations. We must be careful of not going down the road of over-regulation.