Bríd Smith warns of panic and class bias in new COVID laws
Bríd Smith spoke in a parliamentary debate on 23 Oct 2020 criticizing proposed COVID legislation as a panicked response that deflects from systemic failures. She praised teachers and health workers while arguing testing and tracing have collapsed and warning that fines would disproportionately hit lower-income people.
Main criticism of government approach
Bríd Smith said the government is in a panic and is deflecting from deep systemic problems. She pointed to the collapse of the tracing system and a domino effect onto testing, and described the situation in schools as a "complete disaster" with unions balloting and calling for strikes. She praised teachers, health services and essential workers while saying applause has not been matched by adequate support.
Concerns about enforcement and fines
She warned the proposed enforcement measures risk turning the minister's four E's - engage, educate, encourage and enforce - into "four F's" and predicted a surge of fines that will fall on lower economic classes. Smith argued Gardaí will not uniformly enforce measures across communities and cited historical examples of fines and jailing hitting the poor, saying fines are ineffective and deepen social divisions.
Health system capacity and testing failures
Smith said infections are rising among health workers and that hospitals lack capacity despite assurances about winter plans. She warned beds and trolleys will fill up as COVID cases increase, public health doctors are overwhelmed, and the tracing and testing systems cannot keep up with casework and routine care.
Policy alternatives and missing measures
She advocated a zero COVID approach that focuses resources rather than permanent lockdowns, arguing the last lockdown was wasted because capacity was not increased and the economy was reopened too early. She criticised the absence of workplace checks in hotspots such as meat factories and direct provision centres, called for stopping 7,000 arrivals a day and for genuine cross-border discussions with the Northern Ireland Assembly to coordinate policies, and urged a message of unity and respect rather than division.
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Good morning. I sense not just a pandemic but a panic of this government because what this is all about is deflecting from the real, really deep systemic problems that this society is facing. We've seen the collapse of the tracing system, the domino effect onto the testing system that we heard of this morning, what Deputy Math Carty has just talked about in a complete disaster facing the schools. They were already evidence coming through that they were in trouble. Forsa are calling for a strike of their school staff. The ASTI have balloted. They're not doing this because they don't care about the kids. In fact, the opposite. And Deputy O'Dowd wants us to praise people. I utterly and totally praise the teachers and the staff of the schools who've done their best to get those schools open and to keep them open. I happen to live with a school teacher and the stress and the worry and the angst that they carry with them every day through this pandemic is incredible. And I absolutely praise them and praise the health services and praise all essential workers. We have done so and we've praised and clapped them to death. But we're failing them. We're failing them because the number of infections are rising among our health workers. The testing and tracing system has collapsed. We don't have the capacity in the hospitals, despite what you say. Your winter plan is not nearly enough. And as we face into winter, the beds and the trolleys and the same old, same old will fill up and the COVID cases will increase, are increasing. And you see, I've just read Minister McEntee's statement here today to support you. And she talks about the four E's that the Gardaí had been using. Engage, educate, encourage and enforce as a final resort. And that's fine. But I'm afraid that what we're doing today is panicking and trying to turn four E's into four F's. Because what will happen, and I've no doubt about this, is that there will be a surge of fines against people who generally will come from the lower economic classes. You're not going to find the Gardaí walking up the leafy suburbs of Castlenock and stopping somebody in their SUV with a crate of fine pinotage wine going to a dinner party. What you'll find is they'll stop young lads and young ones going through parks with a six pack under their arm. And they will attempt to, they will attempt to, not because they want to, in fact, I believe the Gardaí don't want this at all. But because in their panic, the government are turning this into an argument about people's personal behaviour rather than the systemic failure of this government to deliver. So we are totally opposed to putting fines on people. In fact, they don't work. And the ICCL has done some good documentation on this. Remember when you used to be able to jail people for not paying their television licence? The jails were frequently full of mainly single mothers who couldn't afford to pay their television licence fine and would go to jail for a day or two instead. You may find that this will happen. It doesn't work and it's ineffective. But most importantly, it sends out the signal that indeed we are not all in this together. That the domino effect of the tracing system collapsing, the testing system collapsing, the lack of capacity in the hospitals. Our public health doctors are absolutely themselves in a panic with the amount of work they're having to do. They cannot keep up with the cases, never mind the ordinary day-to-day health issues that they have to deal with. So I think this legislation in this admission of failure, not just in the past, but also for the future, because you intend to extend it out until June. And that just proves to us that you are imposing a policy of ebb and flow, ebb and flow, lockdown, open up, lockdown, open up. That is going to be a disaster for the population, psychologically, socially, but also economically, and it will not work for the health that we need to achieve, the health levels we need to achieve in this country. We instead are advocating a zero COVID policy, which is not about a permanent lockdown, but rather it's about focusing on the things that this society needs. We wasted the last lockdown, we didn't increase the capacity to the levels it needed to be at, we opened up the economy wide open way too early. And as has been said by Deputy Kenny, we never imposed the restrictions and the checks and balances on the workplaces, the meat factories, the direct provision centres. This is where the clusters broke out and we never imposed the actual checks and balances on them. And I'm afraid we probably are going to see history repeat itself time and time again, unless there's a severe wake up call to this government. What you're doing is you're dividing the community, you're not uniting them and people don't trust you and they're losing faith in you. But having said that, the vast majority of people want this to work. They want to see the pandemic gone, they want to see a decent health service and they want to see normal life restored. But this recipe is a recipe for disaster and it indicates a panic. And I think that there is a very strong class bias in the way the legislation is framed and the way it will be imposed. As regards to what happened yesterday, well, we saw the Guards quelling the events of yesterday. They already had the powers to do that. So why do we need to give more powers? And as regards to masking, if people refuse to mask up in a shop or on a bus, they already have the powers to do something about that. So I think this is a waste of our time yet again. Instead of looking at how we resource tracking and tracing, stop 7,000 people a day travelling into this country, have proper discussions with the Northern Ireland Assembly to get genuine cross-border and united policies imposed to deal with this pandemic, then we are really wasting our time. And we need to return to a message that says we are in this together and that we respect people. We don't treat them like children and tell them what they can and can't do, but we show them the respect they deserve.
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