Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his response. His personal expression of the importance of public worship for him and many other people will be appreciated by people of faith. However, he is in the unfortunate position of not being the Minister with Cabinet responsibility and having to come to this House to give a reply that does not address the core point I raised. There appears to be no constitutional justification for creating restrictions with penalties and not excluding public worship. In the Dáil, in response to Deputy Nolan, the Minister said that it could be noted that holding a religious gathering is not a penal offence. How does this make sense if there are provisions for a fine and potential prison for holding gatherings but no exclusion made for religious gatherings?

This is extremely problematic. As I and Members of the Dáil have pointed out, faith communities have been extremely compliant and have led by example. There appears to be no evidence that there has been a spread of the virus associated with religious gatherings. In that context, if we return to level 3, it would be intolerable if the Government were to continue to pretend, implicitly or explicitly, that it is somehow against the law to hold religious gatherings. Let it propose what it wishes, but it should not suggest that this is against the law. In light of what we know, it would also be intolerable if there would not be the possibility of public worship, as technically would be the case if we only return to level 3. It is clear that we need a modified level 3. That message must be conveyed, loudly and clearly. The Government has not done its work properly here by proposing to legislate to penalise those who organise religious gatherings when, in fact, it has no legal or constitutional basis for being able to do so.