Legislation with regards to re-introduce Hotel Quarantine.
The narrative of a very dangerous virus and its variants is continued and fuelling the fear.
It is all about saving lives, no mentioning of treatment with ivermectine etc that will prevent deaths and overcrowding hospitals.
Dail: 2 December 2021
“The word is moronic… it means idiotic, stupid. To me, that’s what has characterised the Government’s approach to the COVID pandemic crisis over the last two years.”
“The Government parties, Sinn Féin, Labour and the Social Democrats are backing the return of MHQ, and the legislation will therefore likely pass all stages in the Dáil this evening.”
The Government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been described as “moronic” during a Dáil debate on mandatory hotel quarantine.
Health Minister Stephen Donnelly is trying to bring back the emergency powers around travel from overseas.
No country will be added to the list immediately, however, with the Government saying the legislation is a precaution until we know more about the Omicron variant.
The debate is taking place a day after the first case of the variant was confirmed in Ireland.
In the Dáil, Independent TD Catherine Connolly was one of the few to speak against the plans – but also criticised the Government’s overall response to the pandemic.
She said: “The word is moronic… it means idiotic, stupid. To me, that’s what has characterised the Government’s approach to the COVID pandemic crisis over the last two years.
“We had a situation a few weeks ago where we were talking about nightclubs… all of the time, I knew day centres weren’t open, respite centres weren’t open, and people are at home without care.
“No analysis of that, and the Government’s time taken up by whether we can go in and out of nightclubs.
“No analysis of ventilation… lots of TDs have raised it repeatedly. But [the advice] is all ‘wash your hands’… absolutely no mention of ventilation at all.”
In terms of mandatory hotel quarantine, she argued that making people quarantine on arrival here is an “encroachment of human rights” – but that aspect has been missing from the debate.
She said any such measure must be “temporary and proportionate”, but no time has been spent since the initial end of mandatory hotel quarantine on a full human rights assessment of the measure.
She also suggested South Africa is being “punished” for analysing the virus and sharing the knowledge of the new variant with the world.
Ireland, the EU and other countries have rushed to reintroduce travel restrictions for southern Africa after scientists there first reported details of Omicron last week.
Deputy Connolly said she herself has backed emergency powers during the pandemic.
However, she observed: “From day one, when I agreed to the draconian legislation, I did it with the knowledge that what I was agreeing to was draconian – the most severe encroachment on our basic human rights. I did so because of a threat.
“Almost two years down the road, I expect a completely different approach from the Government.”
Introducing the legislation earlier today, Stephen Donnelly said the reintroduction of hotel quarantine “may be necessary for a limited of time” if the Omicron variant proves more resistant to vaccines.
Stephen Donnelly (minister)
I am here to today to address the House on the Health (Amendment) (No. 3) Bill 2021. The purpose of the Bill is to strengthen Ireland’s ability to respond to the ongoing and emerging threat to public health from Covid-19 and specifically, as colleagues will be aware, the new Omicron variant that has emerged. The Bill is being introduced in the context of the emergence of this new variant.
It strikes a fair and proportionate balance between the protection of public health and the common good in the situation we face, on the one hand, and the limited restriction of individual rights on the other. It is of note that the UK introduced hotel quarantine very quickly in response to the emergence and the potential risk, which is still being evaluated, of the new variant. The Irish Government has decided at this point to reintroduce the legal basis for hotel quarantine should it be deemed necessary to reintroduce hotel quarantine in response to the threat posed by the Omicron variant.
David Cullinane, SF
Sinn Féin has tabled a number of amendments to the Bill, as the Minister may have seen. When previous incarnations of the Bill were brought before the Dáil we supported them and we will also support this Bill.
Every time regulations have been introduced I can say without exception the first I have learned of them is when they have been put on the website. Often, the media contacts us waiting for our response to what those regulations mean. We can be sitting in front of laptops refreshing the HSE website waiting for the regulations. There is no email, no heads-up or no sense of what time the regulations might be published. This was raised in the health committee recently. It simply is not good enough. I do not believe that if the Minister was standing where I am, he would see it as an acceptable way of working with the Opposition on introducing very difficult measures. There are very strong feelings, as the Minister knows, on any and every public health measure. It is very important that as much as we can, we have maximum transparency, maximum accountability, proper debate and proper scrutiny. I have to say, once again, as I stand here that this has not happened. We have had very few briefings for the Opposition from the Minister, the Chief Medical Officer or the Department of Health. We have had very few briefings at the Oireachtas health committee. Many members of the health committee feel that in recent times we have been treated with contempt with regard to legislation being brought forward and permission being sought for the waiving of pre-legislative scrutiny. On occasions I gave consent for it and on other occasions I did not.
Duncan Smith SF
The UK’s virus numbers remain off the charts. We added Cuba to the list that week. The other states that were on the list that week included Burundi, Cape Verde, Eritrea, Ethiopia, French Guyana, Haiti, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, the Maldives, Oman, Sudan and Tanzania. We could see a pattern emerging. Any time we would ask for details on why a particular state had been added to the list, we were never given the answers.
Deputy Jennifer Murnane O’Connor
The booster roll-out is absolutely brilliant. In my area, Carlow-Kilkenny, there will be walk-in booster clinics from the end of next week. Some 93% of adults have been vaccinated. That is really important and shows the Government’s commitment to protecting people.
Deputy Danny Healy-Rae
The first thing I wish to raise with the Minister is the issue of masks which have been ordered in for children in schools. Many parents are very hurt and concerned because even yesterday morning and this morning, many mothers have spoken to me to say that they cannot get the exemption letter from their doctors. As the Members may know, doctors in Kerry are very busy and sick elderly people are even waiting for appointments. It can take anything up to a week to be seen by a doctor if one has an ailment in Kerry. Many of our GPs are very busy. They will not give a letter exempting a child from wearing a mask because of asthma and all of the other ailments. One child has breathing difficulties and had Covid-19 a number of weeks ago. I do not know if the Minister is listening and if he is not I have no business talking then.
Deputy Catherine Connolly
I welcome this opportunity and I often claim there is no debate but we got time today to debate this Bill. However, I deplore the fact that the Bill only became available to Deputies late on Tuesday night. We had yesterday to look at it and it is up for discussion this morning. I could not possibly get through that Bill and analyse it in the manner that it deserves in that time so that is unacceptable. It should have been teased out in a committee.
I am probably one of the few who does not welcome this Bill. I always preface my comments by saying it is a serious virus with variants which were eminently foreseeable from the start. I gave my permission to draconian legislation, and I use every opportunity because sometimes I only have two or three minutes although on this occasion I have longer, to say I reluctantly gave that permission and agreed with the Government because we were facing a serious threat. I did so on the basis of a contract of information with the Government that it would come back proactively on a regular basis, which never happened. We have reacted over and over.
I want to put what I have read of the Bill into perspective. I look at the human rights aspect of this and I will put it in the perspective of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, ICCL. Mandatory hotel quarantine was introduced on 26 March and came to an end at about 25 April. I want to examine the human rights issues because Members have overwhelmingly welcomed the Bill, which I understand. However, I do not understand the failure to put in context the constant encroachment on human rights without any analysis or assessment whatsoever. The ICCL stated:
Mandatory hotel quarantine undoubtedly amounts to a form of State detention. Persons who travel into Ireland from designated States [and this is going back to April] must make a booking and so on.
The constant confusion and obfuscation in relation to PCR and antigen testing is simply unacceptable. Reference is made to three days for a PCR test and two days for an antigen test. I heard the interview, mentioned by others, with an assistant professor from UCD, a virologist, who had huge difficulty understanding the science behind this. We are told all of the time to respect the scientific advice but this man, this academic said that he had great difficulty understanding it. Each and every one of us must try to read, listen and come to our own conclusions and make our own decisions, as best we can, in the knowledge that we must protect ourselves and each other. Instead of that type of debate, what we have is a demonisation of people who, for many reasons – they are not a homogenous group – have decided not to be vaccinated
Seanad: 3 December 2021
Ann Rabitte (minister)
I am here today to address the House on the Health (Amendment) (No. 3) Bill 2021. The purpose of this Bill is to strengthen Ireland’s ability to respond to the ongoing and emerging threats to public health from Covid-19. As we have always done, we need to act as and when required to ensure we do what we can to protect our health. Amending the Health Act 1947 will allow for the reintroduction of mandatory quarantine at a designated facility for all passengers arriving from particular countries where variants of the Covid virus present a particularly high risk. The Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, made the following important point clear yesterday in the Dáil. The provisions of this Bill strike a fair and proportionate balance between the protection of public health and the common good in the face of this pandemic, on the one hand, and the limited restriction of individual rights, on the other.
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Victor Bohan:
….”They are the ones that jumped off the page when I re-read the ICCL’s document before coming to the House this morning. It states:
The rushing of these Bills through the Oireachtas once again undermines proper democratic processes. Legislation which impacts rights should undergo additional parliamentary scrutiny, not less.
I know we all agree on this, but it is worth putting it on the record. It then goes on to say:
Sunset clauses in emergency legislation are meaningless…and impact on rights. All future extensions of legislation must provide for robust analysis and in-depth scrutiny. All restrictions on rights need to be grounded in strong evidence proving they are necessary, proportionate and constitute the most minimal interference with rights [of citizens and the people of this country.”
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