Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 9:

In page 91, between lines 30 and 31, to insert the following: “(b) will have access to the same standard of medical care within the country, as they can receive within the State,”.

Amendments Nos. 9 to 11, inclusive, relate to a similar scenario. The Minister may be aware that I previously raised with the Minister of State with responsibility for law reform, Deputy James Browne, a Commencement matter regarding the concern around deportations or return orders that have been issued. I understand that more than 460 have been issued during the Covid-19 crisis. There are also concerns around the potential exercise of those deportation orders during a time of global pandemic. Amendments Nos. 9, 10 and 11 seek to address the issue in different ways.

The Minister may also be aware that the Civil Engagement Group today introduced specific legislation in the Seanad, which we will be bringing to Second Stage next week. I hope these amendments might be accepted but it is important that we address these issues. The specific legislation we have introduced seeks to ensure that persons will not be issued with deportation orders at a time when things are unsafe.

Amendments Nos. 9 to 11, inclusive, are a little different to the legislation I mentioned but try to address a similar issue. A country should not be regarded as a safe country and a return should not be issued where there is a significant risk to the health of a person, either as a result of the public health situation in a country to which they are being expelled or returned or if the process of travel itself to that country could carry a significant health risk. Those are the contents of amendment No. 10 but amendments Nos. 9 and 11 are variations on the same theme.

Perhaps the Minister will comment on this issue. I realise it is not the usual scenario but it is the current one in many parts of the world. We know that public health systems are really strained. The Minister mentioned the process of refoulementand obviously there can be no refoulementwhen a person will be persecuted or endangered because of their ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation and so forth. Sometimes endangerment, even within non-refoulement, is not simply a matter of an act of persecution, sometimes it is a matter of omission. If a person is less likely to be able to access the healthcare that they need or is likely to be excluded from necessary public health protections, that is also a concern. That means that a person might be placed in danger, especially when there is a health crisis in Ireland and many other parts of the world. Many of the great cities of the world are in health crisis. There is a general and prevailing situation of public health danger. Some persons may be vulnerable and marginalised because they are of a particular ethnic group. Some of those who are facing deportation orders at present have no family links whatsoever in a country. They could be particularly vulnerable to that general public health danger.

That is what these amendments are looking at. I am conscious of time and the pressure the Minister has spoken about in terms of this legislation. I know that we will have an opportunity to engage on this next Wednesday, and, I hope, between now and then. Will the Minister indicate her thoughts on this issue?