Ivana Bacik (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. On behalf of the Labour Party, I wish to express my enormous sympathy to all of those affected by Covid-19. This includes the families and loved ones of the more than 1,800 people who have sadly died, and to the many who continue to suffer, who have had Covid and are still suffering with the after effects of what is being referred to as long Covid. I also express my admiration for, and solidarity with, our front-line workers.

We all recognise the enormous public health threat posed by the Covid-19 pandemic. The Labour Party has offered constructive opposition over the past few months. We supported the emergency legislation we are debating today back in March, but we also tabled amendments seeking to secure a sunset clause, and we were glad to see that sunset clause was inserted into the legislation. However, at this point, we cannot support the extension that is proposed for seven months. We have not been given adequate time to scrutinise these motions or, indeed, the basis for them. We saw the regulations signed by the Minister at 11.50 p.m. last night, SI 448 of 2020. These are detailed regulations containing extensive penal provisions, with draconian powers extended. I know that the regulations are only to last until 1 December 2020, but if that is the case, why are we seeking to extend these measures for seven months?

As a result of that, I was happy to second the amendment moved by Sinn Féin to shorten the extension to February 2021, rather than having a long extension for seven months to June 2021. There is no difficulty in the Minister coming back to the House in the interim, for example, in February, if indeed a longer extension is needed. We must be given time to debate the issue then. However, it is entirely inappropriate to debate this legislation in such a way that we have six minutes each to debate two motions containing extraordinary extensions of powers. Even in a pandemic, can we not give a little more time for parliamentary scrutiny?

The Irish Council for Civil Liberties, ICCL, has rightly criticised the railroading through, not only of these motions, but of the other legislation that we will consider under guillotine tomorrow. Tomorrow four guillotines will be imposed on legislation and one is being imposed today. The health Bill being debated tomorrow proposes to introduce on-the-spot fines. The Labour Party is not convinced that that is necessary. There is capacity in the District Court and there are existing procedures through the District Court to enable the implementation of the penal provisions. We are not convinced of the evidence that these on-the-spot fines are necessary.

We have supported the Government to try to get through this pandemic together, and we have tried to do so in a constructive manner. We supported the Living with Covid framework when it was introduced, but we have expressed serious concerns about the way in which it has been implemented, about Government communication as to the move between levels and the rapid move from level 3 up to level 5 without, it seemed, sufficient consideration of alternatives. We are all very conscious of the massive impact that this week's level 5 restrictions have for so many people, including workers, businesses and families. What has been lacking, particularly in the past few weeks, has been any sense of a coherent and planned exit strategy, that is, a point at which we can say that the curve is sufficiently flattened and we can move incrementally between the levels of restriction, as were supposed to do. If we are to live with Covid, then that is what we must do.

This week the Taoiseach ruled out the zero Covid strategy, which was being proposed by some very eminent scientists and medics. In order to implement such a strategy we would have needed a coherent all-Island approach, which was not evident, unfortunately. The summer was a missed opportunity, when we had brought down levels of infection and reduced the R number to a point at which it would have been containable, had we put in place the contact tracing system that we clearly need and which broke down so unfortunately at the weekend, and had we put in place a system of rapid testing. Deputy Alan Kelly has asked repeatedly in the Dáil about why we do not have a proper rapid testing system and a contact tracing system in place. We know that track and test is the only way. If we are not adopting a zero Covid strategy and we are to live with the virus, we must ensure that we have an exit strategy to come out of this level of unsustainable, severe restrictions. We must have a point at which we can say that the virus is containable and we have enough contact tracers in position that we can identify, move and tackle any outbreaks where they occur. That is what we failed to do in the last flattening of the curve. We cannot fail people this time.

We have six weeks now, and we will work with all in government, our front-line workers and society to ensure that this works, however we need to be given a coherent strategy to ensure that it does. We have supported the Minister of State and the Government in keeping schools and childcare open, which is hugely significant and important. We have supported reasonable measures where the evidence is clear, but we cannot support open-ended extensions for seven months without adequate time to debate and scrutinise them and without a clear plan and timeframe for coming out of this level of restrictions.

We will have an opportunity to speak on the health Bill tomorrow, albeit very briefly, because we have two and a half hours to pass All Stages of the Bill because there is a guillotine, which is most unfortunate. Through the regulations and the extension motions railroaded through today and the Bill tomorrow, we are going to see the blunt instrument of criminal law being used to try to encourage social solidarity. In my view, as a criminal lawyer, that is not the most effective means to tackle Covid-19. What we have seen over the past seven or eight months is enormous social solidarity, goodwill, efforts and energy put in by so many people to suppress Covid. A much better way to build social solidarity is to ensure that we bring people with us and that we have continued goodwill, rather than to use the blunt instrument of the criminal law.