Barry Ward (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am deeply uncomfortable with the provisions in this Bill which does not mean they are not necessary or proportionate in the current circumstances. I have read the concerns expressed by many organisations, in particular non-governmental organisations, including the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, ICCL. I welcome the fact it has looked into this even if it may not have had the time it would have liked to examine all the provisions.

It is important to say that when somebody is in the custody of the State, be it the Garda, Prison Service or even psychiatric care, each one of those institutions has a very important statutory oversight agency, whether it is the Inspector of Prisons, the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission or the mental health tribunals. They have a very clear oversight function in respect of persons in the custody of the State. I note this Bill does not specifically provide for such oversight. That is one of the concerns raised by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, for example, and I agree with it. However, this Bill does not stop the Minister from putting that oversight in place, even though it might not be contained in the Bill. We are a few weeks away from implementing this but given that it is coming under the Department of Health, the Minister still has an opportunity to implement those oversights and I encourage him to do so. I agree with suggestions from other speakers that it should be a justice Bill but that is another day's work.

I raise a concern over the provisions of the new section 31AA which appear to make the provisions of this Bill retrospective. There will be issues with that if a prosecution or enforcement measure is sought under the provisions of that section. Perhaps the Minister will take the opportunity to address that.

I may address this final issue on Committee Stage.This is the third time we have amended the Health Act 1947. I understand why that is the case. I agree with suggestions that doing it in a day is unhelpful. Again, however, I understand the exigencies of the current circumstances. Amendments to the Health (Amendment) Act 2020 were put forward on the previous occasion and these identified what we said were flaws in it. The matters to which those amendments related are not addressed in this Bill, even though we are amending the same sections of the 1947 Act. Has the Minister had an opportunity to think about that? Has the Department given any consideration to the issues that were raised during the debates in this Chamber last September?