Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

With regard to keeping Parliament informed, I respectfully disagree with the Senator. There has been a lot of debate. Perhaps there should have been more in the Seanad. As I said, I am open to such debates, although the Seanad orders its own business. I have sat in this room week after week for sessions of questions and answers. There has been a lot of parliamentary debate. With regard to the right to access the information that informs these decisions, I wholeheartedly agree. Great efforts have been made to that end. Colleagues will be aware that most of the advice comes from NPHET, the minutes of whose meetings are all publicly available online. The NPHET documents that I receive and that NPHET use include very detailed presentations on epidemiology, clusters, outbreaks, international evidence and many other things and these are all up online. All of the advice that comes to me from the Chief Medical Officer, which historically has tended to come on a Thursday, is also online. There has been a genuine effort. It is very important that Parliament and the public have access to the rationale, the evidence and the specific public health advice given to me and to Government.

Senator Ó Donnghaile made reference to his amendments, Nos. 2 and 4. I hope I have spoken to his points when speaking about amending the legislation in the Dáil. I believe an amended deadline in July would just be too early. We are still in an evolving situation and we need those powers through the summer and autumn if we are to unwind the restrictions safely. I believe I have spoken to the points Senator Ruane raised in terms of having just one sunset clause. I hope the Senator is happy with that.

Although it is not an issue contained within the Bill, Senator Conway asked about a meeting between the Minister, Robin Swann, and myself. I confirm that he wrote to me and that I responded seeking a meeting of officials first so that a technical basis and understanding could be established. That meeting happened on Friday. In light of that, I again wrote to the Minister seeking a meeting with him. It is important. Senator Conway made the point that we should have as unified an approach as possible across the island. I wholeheartedly endorse such an approach. We also have concerns with regard to the Indian variant. The level of genome sequencing being carried out in the North is lower than the level here. We would be very interested in getting a better understanding of the extent of the prevalence of the Indian variant in the North. It is obviously something we are watching here. The Minister, Robin Swann, may have reciprocal questions with regard to the epidemiological situation and public health measures here.

Senator Higgins made similar points to those of Senator Ruane with regard to the sunset clause. I hope the Senator is happy with the proposed actions in that regard. Senator Ward also made similar points and said that none of us is at ease with this Bill. Quite frankly, we would all prefer if it did not exist and was not needed. For the reasons I have outlined, I agree wholeheartedly with Senator Ward. I cannot accept the amendments tabled for various reasons but I share the concern of the Senator, and of all colleagues, with regard to the rolling-on of powers. As I stated, I hope to seek Government agreement to amend this in the Dáil later this week.