Niall Ó Donnghaile (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire. Since we last had this debate, an extreme wave of Covid-19 in January caught people by surprise. Thanks to the sacrifices made by the public and the valiant efforts of our front-line healthcare workers, we have brought this virus under control. The vaccine roll-out is, after a rocky start, as people have said, under way. The cases, though not as low as we would like, are stable. With the vast majority of older and vulnerable people vaccinated, many ask why we still need these regulations in place. The third wave taught us that we must be prepared to act quickly and decisively when the virus is resurgent. There are no guarantees that a fourth wave could not happen. The recent surge in India reminds us that we must all remain vigilant to mutant variants. The continued global pandemic - and it remains a pandemic - presents ample opportunity for further mutations. While there is an epidemic anywhere, especially in large nations such as India which are heavily integrated into the global economy, we all remain at risk. Despite progress on vaccination programmes the world over, the risk of vaccine-resistant strains grows. Much of the global south will not be vaccinated until well into 2023. The State must stand prepared to act decisively to keep mutant strains out and, if they slip through, to clamp down and eliminate them.

This underscores the importance of maintaining and enhancing our mandatory hotel quarantine system. It is the most important defence in the fight to keep variants of concern at bay. It is integral to maintaining the very welcome easing of restrictions into the summer months. We all want this to happen and we all want this relaxation to stay. We all support the public health measures and interventions which allow us to keep the virus under control but we cannot support this Bill in its current form. We support the provisions for further extensions, where necessary, of emergency legislation. The Government must retain the authority to act swiftly in the face of threat, but we cannot support a carte blanchefor a Minister. We especially cannot support an unquestionable extension of emergency powers without parliamentary oversight into November of this year. We will propose a Committee Stage amendment to limit the current extension to 9 July. As we near that date, the provisions of this Bill would allow the Minister once again to seek the Houses' approval for an extension. If that is the public health advice, no doubt the House will oblige, but the Minister cannot continue to issue decrees with far-reaching consequences for society, workers and businesses and for the rights of the individual without parliamentary scrutiny and debate.

The last time we had this debate we told the Minister that when he deems it necessary to implement harsh restrictions, it is his and the Government's obligation to seek the approval of the Oireachtas. It is the sole right of the Oireachtas to legislate and to enforce restrictions on constitutional rights in the interest of the common good. It is not for the Government, a select and unrepresentative group of these Houses, to make that determination alone. The level of co-operation with the Opposition seen during the very early stages of the pandemic does not exist today. The Minister was given extraordinary powers in good faith by Members of this House. To push the sunset clause out until 9 November is to push it too far. It would be appropriate for the Minister to return to the House in late June or July to extend the emergency powers once again if necessary and to explain the context in which they are needed. This has to be part of an overall strategy which people can see and which shows how far we are from exiting from these types of restrictions and the sort of yo-yo situation about which people talk. We do not see such a clear plan coming from the Government yet. In the absence of this plan, we have a Government which seeks these powers for a further six months. That is a step too far for us, not because we do not want restrictions or do not believe public health measures should be implemented but because we believe in scrutiny and accountability. To that end we will also introduce an amendment which would require a statutory instrument issued under the emergency legislation to be approved by the Houses of the Oireachtas within two weeks of its issuing.This would give the Minister and Government scope to act swiftly and decisively, where necessary, and to require, as is right, that they explain these actions to the Houses. We need notice from the Minister when he publishes statutory instruments and member of the public deserve explanations and answers in circumstances where they have questions. We find out that statutory instruments have been introduced when they go up on the website. Not even the health spokespersons for Opposition parties are given a heads-up. We get no emails from the Department to say that the Minister is going to publish a statutory instrument which will be available online or to offer us a briefing or clarification on it.

None of that to which I refer happens. This is not the first time we have said this to the Minister. I say all of this in good faith to him. I want this to change. Transparency is, after all, the Minister's friend. The more information that we have, the better equipped we will be to respond to queries from people outside this Chamber and to reassure them that the measures he is taking are proportionate and appropriate. As part of our way out of the pandemic, we have to ensure that our defences and capacity in a number of areas are built up.

When the very tragic wave of infection in India began, it took from weeks to almost a month for it to be added to the mandatory hotel quarantine list. The variant emerged and then, eventually, quarantine was put in place.

We need to act on an all-Ireland basis. While the Minister seeks emergency powers in these areas, he needs to co-operate more with his counterpart in the North. We heard just this morning from the North's Minister, Robin Swann, MLA, that he has been seeking a meeting with our Minister for two weeks. I am not satisfied that we have got cross-Border testing and tracing right. There is a significant amount of work to do in that regard. I thank the Acting Chairperson for her indulgence. I hope that the Minister will take the opportunity this afternoon to address in public the remarks made by the North's Minister, Robin Swann, this morning. It is a cause of genuine concern and upset that Ministers have not been engaging as closely as they need to be at such an important time.