Ivana Bacik (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, to the House. On behalf of the Labour Party I voice my support for the Bill, although we do not believe it goes far enough. Others have pointed out that we are in an emergency, and indeed we are debating this Bill in emergency time. I am glad the time has been extended somewhat. To take all Stages of such a far-reaching Bill in one day shows just how urgent matters are. With more than 4,000 deaths and more than 200,000 people infected with Covid, we know exactly the sort of emergency we are facing. This is why we disagree with the Minister when he says the Bill strikes a proportionate balance between protecting public health and the common good on the one hand and the limited restriction of individual rights on the other. We believe that the balance should be more fairly set by imposing stricter restrictions on inward travel in order that those of us resident in Ireland can see a gradual lifting of the heavy and draconian restrictions under which all of us are currently living.That is the reality. The balance is skewed in favour of non-essential international travel to and from Ireland and against travel outside of our 5 km zones and the reopening of our schools and workplaces.

To face some facts, we in Ireland have been living under one of the most restrictive lockdowns in Europe for the past year. The Minister is nodding because that is uncontroversial and we all know that has been the case. We have been subject, for the most part and entirely since Christmas, to a 5 km limit for the purposes of exercise. Our workplaces are closed, thousands of people are out of work, nearly 500,000 people are on State supports, businesses and offices remain closed and children are being denied a return to school. I welcome the limited return of schools today but I am conscious of the many children, including all of those with additional needs, who are still facing a lengthy period of homeschooling - what a euphemism - in the months to come.

We are living under restrictive lockdowns and yet we are somehow so inured or institutionalised to the restrictions involved that we see restrictions on inward travel as somehow draconian and breaching civil liberties. I have been surprised at the few people who contacted me to object to Labour's stance in support of a national aggressive suppression strategy and who say that we are trampling on civil liberties. What would be normal protections for civil liberties are already being undermined because of the emergency we are in? To impose tighter restrictions on international travel seems to me to strike a much more proportionate balance. We have received overwhelming support for our stance.

As Deputies Kelly and Duncan Smith put it in the Dáil, we need tighter restrictions and a more extensive law on mandatory hotel quarantine as part of a package of measures to suppress the transmission of Covid. That package of measures should include rapid testing and an accelerated vaccination programme. None of us is saying that mandatory hotel quarantine is a silver bullet but it is an essential part of the package of measures we need to take in this country to address the spread of Covid.

I entirely agree with my colleague, Senator Sherlock, and with others who have urged against any whiff of xenophobia, as the Minister put it. I am an internationalist. I do not like the idea of border controls. Not many of us do. Many of us, including me, did not like the idea of adopting a zero Covid strategy initially because of the restrictions on travel but that has changed since Christmas and the spread of the new variants. As Senator Sherlock did, I will call them by their names and not by the countries they originated in. I mention the B1351 and the P1 variants. We know from studies by Dr. Paddy Mallon, from the work of the Independent Scientific Advocacy Group and from the arguments put forward by Aoife McLysaght, Tomás Ryan, Gabriel Scally and so many others, of the dangers of increased spread of the virus due to a lack of controls on travel. We must accept, therefore, that travel is a factor. We must also accept the need for more extensive controls on borders and a more robust policy on this island and a cross-Border strategy.

We must ensure that we follow of New Zealand and other countries and do repeat what we did last summer. We came close to zero Covid, as Fintan O'Toole pointed out in the The Irish Timeson Saturday, and we blew it. Had we known then what we know now, we could have adopted a much more effective strategy to tackle and suppress the virus and save lives and livelihoods. Now we know more and now is the time. The amendment that Labour has tabled will give us that chance. As Cillian de Gascun stated, if we do not have quarantine for incoming travel, tackling Covid becomes like "trying to fix a leak with the tap running ... If you can turn off, at least it gives you an opportunity to fix the leak." Let us take the opportunity. We are supporting the Bill but we want to make it more extensive and for it to give us more effective strategies to fight this awful virus.