Annie Hoey (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House. I will begin by saying something about the vaccine roll-out. I am starting to hear of more and more friends and family getting their calls to get a first jab. Some are getting a second jab. There is certainly a sense of buoyancy about the place. People have more pep in their step. My vaccine seems a million miles away but I am sure it will come. When I was hobbling through town today, I saw more light in the air literally and metaphorically. It has to be commended that people are feeling a little more optimistic.

I will outline some concerns with the process of the Bill. The measures have been extended to 9 November. There has been a question as to why it could not have been extended until September. There are proposals for 80% of the adult population to be vaccinated by June. International travel may resume in August. In the context of talking about proportionality, it seems to be something of a jump to extend these powers until November. I can certainly see why September might have seemed more proportionate. I imagine there will be amendments on that point tomorrow.

The Minister has said these powers do not sit easily with him. That is probably an apt description and I do not imagine they sit easily with many people. The principles of the right to protest, freedom of religion and private and family life are all fundamental. They are important issues and I would have preferred more rigorous analysis of the proportionality of these regulations and the impact on these three areas. That certainly would have given the public more confidence that we were not simply steamrolling things through. It is important to have meaningful debate around these things. We only have one hour and 45 minutes today. There will be one hour available tomorrow to try to get through amendments. As we have been in this state for 15 months, I am unsure whether it is as much of an emergency as it was in March. Consequently, more time could have been given to this.

There probably will be an amendment coming on one point. There should be a hard date set in stone for review before any extension. A human rights analysis of these restrictions is important. If we have to go to November, then so be it but what if we are genuinely looking at an extension three months after that? We do not know how this virus will go. I hope to goodness that it is on the way out the door. However, this should not be renewed without vigorous debate and scrutiny. We need to ensure our rights are respected and that the most basic tenets of our democracy are protected. I would like to hear a commitment from the Minister for a review of how these laws are being implemented and how often they have had to be implemented in a report or whatever form it may be in order that we have a clear understanding if it appears, heaven forbid, in October that we have to extend the measures for a further three months. It will be important to get a commitment. If we are going into October and looking at extending the measures for a further three months, then we will be in a dire state. There will be provision to extend the measures from time to time without the appropriate clause. As has been said in the House, I do not believe we will be extending these until the end of time. I hope we will not be extending them until the end of time but it would be great if we could provide for some sort of implementation or review should we have to go beyond November. That is important.

I am somewhat concerned about the time period given for this. Pre-legislative scrutiny, PLS, was waived. It is disappointing that the pre-legislative scrutiny was waived for such extraordinary legislation. The Joint Committee on Health has people from the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, ICCL, and mental health advocates appearing before it tomorrow. We could have worked out the timing better to have heard from these representatives, had more time been given to this. I believe we are doing this backwards to some extent. We only got the briefing on Friday evening. To be fair, it was a great briefing and the officials were very helpful to us but we only got it after the deadline for amendments had passed so I feel like we are chasing our tail a little bit on this. Everyone recognises the real seriousness of the situation. We are not out of the woods yet by any means. Even though there is lot of optimism in the air people really want to know that we, as legislators, are giving this Bill the full legislative once-over scrutiny and robust debate that it deserves and it feels like we are doing things in a slightly awkward order. As we said, we recognise the need for very serious measures and hope that we do not ever have to stand up here again extending them at any point.