Lisa Chambers (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House. I will not speak at length because many of the issues have been covered. I welcome the legislation but join others across the House in saying it is difficult. They are uncomfortable regulations and legislative measures to have in place. Nobody wants to be working in a pandemic with restrictions on civil liberties but there is a recognition that what is being done is in the interests of public health and trying to keep our citizens safe. We have lost many people during the pandemic but it could have been a lot worse if we had not had guidelines and restrictions to keep people safe. People take a degree of comfort from rules. We know what we are dealing with and this gives us a degree of control over what is an uncontrollable situation. It has been evolving and will continue to evolve. While we could have predicted a new variant, we did not know what to expect in terms of what it might mean for how we live our day-to-day lives.

It is particularly difficult for some sectors. I want to acknowledge the hospitality sector at this time of year. Christmas is a big time for hospitality businesses. In my own county of Mayo, many businesses are experiencing lots of cancellations, last-minute cancellations and no-shows. Other Senators have raised that as well. It is important to send out the message that while there are some restrictions in place, we have regained many of the freedoms we did not have last year. The reason we have been able to do that is because of the fantastically successful vaccination programme. I encourage people to support their local hospitality businesses by going for dinner in smaller groups, by buying a cup of coffee or by having lunch out.As I said, it is a difficult period for them. I acknowledge the level of support the Government has extended to those businesses and to the hospitality sector in particular. I know that is appreciated on the ground. There is an appreciation from businesses that they have had a huge level of support from the Government in dealing with these restrictions, as difficult as the situation has been. While they are still open it is in some ways more difficult to manage now because they do not know what numbers they will have coming in and there is potential for no-shows and cancellations.

Senator Hoey made a point about the rolling nature of this legislation. If we are going to be doing this for the next year or two - God help us - we probably do need to find an improved way of dealing with this legislatively. I take issue with Senator Keogan's comment that the sunset clause is not worth the paper it is written on. I utterly reject that. The very fact that we are having a debate, that there is voteable legislation before the House, which will be approved by the Members of both Houses before its operation is continued, is proof of the democratic process. Without the sunset clause we would not be having this debate so it is worth something. It is important to acknowledge that the Government did not bring in this legislation, which contains some quite strong regulations and restrictions, for the long term. It was intended for short periods to facilitate public health measures, in the acknowledgment that it is significant to ask citizens to agree to this. The short-term nature of it is a positive and it is an acknowledgement by the Government that what we are looking for citizens to do and agree to is a big ask. It is also a big ask of An Garda Síochána and our public health front-line workers.

When this legislation first came before the House there was a lot of scaremongering and suggestions that it would be abused and that it was the thin end of the wedge and an attempt to restrict civil liberties on a long-term basis. That has proven to be incorrect and false. That has not happened. We can take some solace and security from the knowledge that the Government has acted honourably all the way through. This is a very short extension but I acknowledge that it is still a big ask of citizens.

We are heading into the Christmas period. There is a lot of positivity. We are still able to get out and about, meet our friends and family and have Christmas dinner with our loved ones. There are some restrictions but it will be nothing like it was last year. That is an important point to make. We have come a long way and we have a long way to go still but these measures are there to reassure people and keep them safe.