Lisa Chambers (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank my colleague, Senator Gallagher, for bringing this Bill to the House. I know he has been working on it for a number of years and that it has been amended and improved a number of times.

I will speak to the section. Throughout the past year and a half of the pandemic, we have found a new appreciation for and understanding of the invaluable work our front-line workers do and how much we rely on them. Where would we have been for the last year and a half were it not for our front-line health workers, those working in the ambulance corps, paramedics, nurses, doctors and An Garda Síochána? They can be attacked by somebody simply for doing their job. They are a distinct group and need to be recognised as such.

We have learned a lot more about the work those individuals do. We have become hyperfocused on our front-line staff over the last year and a half. That has been a good thing. It is one of the good things we will take away from this pandemic whenever we get to the far side of it. We now appreciate just how important those workers are. That probably prompts some reflection when we think of the high salaries we pay to people working in other sectors and how valuable they are when compared with front-line workers, who are the most valuable workers in the country. Gardaí keep us safe and nurses, doctors and paramedics look after us in our time of need. When you are on your deathbed or are injured or sick, they are the ones who are there to care for you. We would not have a functioning country or society without those front-line health workers.

It is very timely that the Bill has now been brought to the Seanad for debate. While we already have public order offences and many mechanisms under the justice system and different laws to protect people, it is important to single out front-line healthcare workers, and front-line workers more generally, as a distinct group in the context of what attacks on them mean to our society. Such attacks must be treated differently. It is not that the injury would be any different if the victim were not a front-line worker, but we are saying to society and to those individuals who might be thinking of carrying out such a crime or who may have already done so that not only is it wrong, but that it has been placed in a special category, which is why the penalties should be more severe. We must send a strong message that those who commit this type of crime will pay a significant penalty for that because we take it very seriously.

I have friends working as paramedics and in the ambulance corps. I also have a friend who works in patient transfer. One of the interesting aspects of this Bill is that it would make it a criminal offence to ram an emergency vehicle. That is not something we often talk about but attacking such a vehicle when it is begin used to assist people in their time of need is an offence of a different level. Over the past year and a half, we have been talking a lot about our front-line workers and how we value them. We do value those front-line workers, but there has been a lot of talk and not a whole lot of action in terms of making changes to how we deal with them and show them, in a very meaningful way, that we value them. We have had conversations regarding a pandemic bonus or a bank holiday. I see that President Higgins is talking about a signed document and a visit to Dáil Éireann. Those are all nice things, but would it not send out a fantastic message from the Oireachtas to actually amend legislation to put them into a distinct and special category so that, if anybody chooses and decides to attack them, that person will be dealt with differently and every more seriously and that a greater penalty will be attached to the assault?That would be a strong message to send to our front-line workers and that is what we are trying to say to them today.

I take on board what Senator Ward said about the sentencing aspect. Judges will be in a position to deal with that themselves. We give sentencing guidelines in all other areas of law as well so this would not be very different from that. It is, on balance, probably the right balance to strike.

I also think of our gardaí. I have been talking to some of them over the past year and a half and have had conversations about how they have found it, particularly given the restrictions they have had to police. These were, and still are, exceptional and extraordinary circumstances. We have asked a lot of our front-line workers this past year and a half and we continue to do so. There was a lot of responsibility and additional work placed on our front-line workers and on gardaí when they were policing the streets and roads to try to implement and work within those new laws and restrictions. It was a very difficult time for them. For the most part, thankfully, the gardaí I have spoken to have said they found the public very good to deal with, even though the public were frustrated and scared at times as it had been a difficult period. However, they also said there were difficult moments and difficult individuals they had to deal with on the roads, on certain premises, or in and around people's homes who made their job very difficult. The Garda had to deal with certain attacks. We heard about instances where individuals spat in the faces of gardaí early in the pandemic when we were all at the height of our fear about the spread of Covid-19.

That is the level of assault that comes upon front-line workers when they are doing their jobs and are there to protect the rest of us. The past year and a half has just added weight to Senator Gallagher's argument that these are a distinct and separate group of individuals in our society upon whom we rely and who are extremely valued. Every day of the week they are putting their lives on the line to care for all of us, mind all of us, and ensure our country and society continue to function. We owe it to them to have a look at the legislation in this area to see if it is sufficient and up to scratch.

Justice legislation can be slow to change. I am not saying that is a good or bad thing. When making changes to a law that could potentially impact on somebody's liberty or result in significant fines, you have to be cautious and consider all the possible consequences of those changes. That is what this debate is about. It is about looking at this legislation and deciding whether it is the right move and is sending the right message, but also whether it balances the rights of our citizens. This is the second term in which Senator Gallagher has introduced this legislation. He considered in detail the comments of the previous Minister for Justice. I gather there was broad support for the initiative but some changes were recommended and I believe all of that has been taken on board now. Working with the legal advisers here in the Oireachtas, the Bill has been drafted to a very high standard, taking into consideration all the consequences of enacting this legislation.

This is not being proposed lightly. There is a high degree of awareness about what is being proposed as regards sentencing and what it would mean for justice legislation. As I said, we owe it to our front-line workers to update our laws to reflect that this is a different and more serious offence and something we have to take seriously. There are a number of elements to the Bill that could be considered further and debated further and there will be a chance further on in the legislative process to make further changes. We all accept that the intention behind the Bill is solid and good. Most people would agree with identifying front-line workers as being separate from ordinary citizens as they daily put themselves in the face of danger to protect all of us, and that they should therefore be treated as a separate and distinct group of people. This legislation would allow us to improve, modernise and update our laws to reflect that, which is a good thing. There will be opportunities to hear from other Members of the House, other political parties, the Minister and the Department as to whether they wish to make additions or updates to any other elements of the Bill, so that at the end of the legislative process we have the best Bill we possibly can. It is important to send that message that we are intent on updating our laws. This is something we-----