Barry Ward (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

My understanding of the amendment is that it seeks to take from the hands of the Minister the right to designate certain countries that require measures to be put in place and replace it with a blanket application to every country, territory or place outside the State. That is fine on one level and it appears to be what the Labour Party and others advocate. I accept their right to do it. As Senator Conway stated, however, it is using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. We can worry about the wording but it is not that unfortunate an expression; nobody is suggesting Covid-19 is a small matter. It is not what Senator Conway was suggesting. He did suggest it is an overly onerous and inflexible measure that does not allow the Department, the Minister or the State to react to changes.If there is one thing we have learned about Covid it is that the situation changes all of the time.

With regard to section 2 and the new section 38E, were we to pass this amendment and change the section to specify that section 38E will define a designated state as applying to every country outside the State, as Senator Conway has noted that would prevent us in the future from removing the restriction, for example, from those countries where there is no Covid. The point was made that many countries on the list currently do not have direct flights to Ireland, which of course is true but they do have onward tickets and it is possible to identify people who have travelled from a particular country. This can also be asked of somebody on arrival in the State.

We cannot pass this amendment because the whole purpose of this House is to set down a framework for laws. In many instances, as we have done in thousands of items of legislation, we delegate to the Minister of the day the power to make regulations because it is much easier to change regulations. Examples of this include everything from the misuse of drugs regulations to television licence regulations. Regulations allow for flexibility because the Minister, the Department, the officials, the advisers and the people on the ground know when things need to change. If, for example, we decide that we are not going to designate Iceland any longer because Iceland has no Covid, then we should be able to do that. We should not have to come back here to pass a new Bill to do that. It should be possible for the Minister to do that at the stroke of a pen. The proposed legislation as currently phrased allows the Minister to do that. This amendment would prevent the Minister from doing that and would mean that the framework we are trying to put in place would be rigid and inflexible. This is why we cannot pass the amendment.