Lorraine Clifford-Lee (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for coming to the House and for his comprehensive explanation. I am glad I have the opportunity to speak on this very important legislation. It is a proportionate response to the threat we face. I am very happy with its sunset clause, which provides that the House will return in three months' time to debate whether to continue its provisions. It will depend on what out situation is at that time. I appeal to everybody here to be careful in their language to quell the narrative around this legislation. Like others, I took many phone calls on Thursday from very worried people who were whipped into a state of anxiety when they looked on social media and saw photographs of the voting panel from the convention centre.The narrative was that the Government voted against mandatory quarantining. This is a complete misrepresentation of what had actually happened.

The list of 33 countries is significant. It is a proportionate response to the threats from the new variants. I am very glad we are moving away from the language about particular variants being linked with certain countries and certain nationalities. The Minister is right when he says the dramatic and sometimes xenophobic language used about this particular issue is not something that we in Ireland should buy into. As the Minister pointed out, this xenophobic language has been used against Irish people many times in many countries. I remember reading something about the many Irish emigrants in New York and how they were discriminated against when they came off the boats into the communities and sought work. They were turned away because of the fear of spreading disease. The xenophobic language has to stop and it is all of our responsibility.

While we might disagree with each other, we must debate this legislation on its merits and not whip people up into a frenzy. People are suffering enough. People are anxious enough. People have missed out on many things in their lives. Their children have suffered. They have suffered and have lost incomes. They have lost loved members of their families and communities. We really need to focus on this legislation. It is being done with the best of intentions and I hope we can get it as right as possible and that we can have good legislation and a good quarantining system in place. It is for the good of the country. I do not think political point scoring on this and using this particular legislation to score a few points against the Government is the wisest thing to do.

I look forward to debating the measures in the Bill and I thank the Minister for his comprehensive outline of it. The situation in New Zealand is often cited as something we could follow. I will not point out the many differences between Ireland and New Zealand. It is still worth bearing in mind the very severe restrictions in place in New Zealand and the fact it is having snap lockdowns. All of sudden, life just changes and they are back into lockdowns. Auckland is in a seven-day lockdown at present. Mandatory quarantining for everybody entering these shores is not the silver bullet that some would like to make out. I hope we can have a mature debate on this Bill today and I look forward to hearing the rest of the measures.