Ivana Bacik (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I also welcome the opportunity to speak on the motion to extend the legislation which we debated in the House barely two months ago. I checked and we debated all Stages on 10 September. It was unfortunate at that point that we were debating all Stages in one day. There have been several different occasions on which we have had that experience. We did not, however, oppose the Bill on that occasion but we did put down amendments. On behalf of the Labour Party, I spoke about our concerns as to the powers it contained.

We all recognise there have been high levels of compliance. It is useful the Minister of State's speech contained the figures on enforcement. Clearly, licensed premises have shown high levels of compliance. I noted the Minister of State said nothing has changed in regard to the virus in the two months. We have all perhaps become even more aware of the threat Covid-19 poses in the two months since. What has changed is that licensed premises are now all closed and we have moved back to a level of lockdown not experienced since the spring and early summer. There is the welcome difference with level 5, however, in that schools and childcare facilities have remained open.

We have seen the threat building across Europe to the point where we are seeing much higher levels of restrictions in place across different European countries than were in place in September. Perhaps in September we had a different view of how we could experience living with Covid-19 than we do now. What is more pressing and what has changed is the urgent requirement for a clear and coherent exit strategy to be put in place. It must be a strategy beyond simply rolling levels of lockdown, rolling periods of restrictions on businesses and our lives with the ongoing effect and impact that these have on people's mental and physical health, as well as on our economy and our society.

On 23 October, when we last debated an extension of special powers by the Government, I said we needed to see that exit strategy built on an investment in rapid testing, increased resources for contact tracing and a much greater commitment to an all-island strategy. What has changed in two months is that we have seen frightening levels of infection spreading rapidly across Northern Ireland. There is now a far greater clarity about the need for an all-island strategy. We need to be looking at an approach which has been adopted successfully in democracies such as Australia. Other colleagues spoke earlier about Taiwan. We need to look at countries which have adopted a much clearer sense of purpose around an exit strategy and a zero-Covid strategy where the virus can be suppressed to a point where any outbreaks can then be rapidly contained when one has investment in rapid-testing and contact-tracing strategies. That approach has to be taken on an all-island basis. Otherwise, we will be faced with an endless series of lockdowns and endless extensions of different restrictive procedures.

We did not oppose the Bill in September, despite our misgivings and concerns. We will not oppose the extension of powers today. However, we support the amendment to shorten the period for which the powers are to be extended. An extension to June is too long. We should look at coming back to the Houses in February, not because we think the threat of the virus will have been eliminated. It will absolutely not be the case. Sadly, none of us thinks that any more. We are all cognisant that this threat will remain with us well into 2021. It is because we recognise the need for the parliamentary scrutiny of extensions of powers. That has to be acknowledged.

It is disappointing that the Government did not see fit to accept the amendment. In any other setting, these would be seen as draconian powers, along with the powers contained in the other emergency legislation which we have passed. We have not seen, unfortunately, similar lengthy extensions on, for example, the ban on evictions. We have not seen the introduction of statutory sick pay, which the Labour Party has called and pushed for and the need for which has been acknowledged by the Government. For all of these reasons, there should be a shorter period of extension, although we will not oppose the principle of the extension of the powers given the threat, which is an international one, we all face.

Colleagues have spoken about the US election. As we all await the hopefully imminent declaration of President Joe Biden - again, that sounds good - the Covid context of the US elections has had a significant impact on the way in which people voted there, for better or for worse. It will be a massive challenge for incoming President Biden to deal with.

We have seen extraordinarily high levels of compliance from licensed premises, the subject of this legislation. That has to be commended. The way in which the Garda has approached policing and the use of draconian powers has also been commendable. All of us recognise that the Garda has not gone in with a heavy-handed approach. It has recognised that our best way of dealing with Covid and bringing infection rates down is through public buy-in and social solidarity across communities, not through the heavy-handed or crude instrument of criminal law.