Mattie McGrath criticises NPHET and COVID restrictions

I am glad to see yourself back and full swing as well. Look, we are at another situation now in our country where more restrictions rolled out this evening. Even though they have been drip-fed all week over 10 days and business has been put into disarray, people contacting all politicians' offices, you know, about the cancellations and about the uncertainty. I am not talking about hospitality in total, I am talking about across the board, you know, boutiques and shops and clothes shops and people were spending a little for Christmas, deposits paid and they have been looked for back and whatever. The people have run to hell and back. Either the vaccine passes are useless, Minister, and we get rid of them, or we require restrictions, or they work, at which point you certainly do not need further restrictions. So it has to be one or the other, I believe, at this point in time. Both situations cannot be true at the same time. But this government, while acting as though the vaccine passes do not work, by implementing restrictions, continue to discuss the extension and widespread use of other restrictions. It is bizarre. Where is the logic? Where is the science that you are going to talk about? The Minister has failed dismally to get this situation under control. Never have failed in their duties, and they have lost the support of the public a long time ago. Not now, but a long time ago. They have failed to build up hospital bed capacity and ICU capacity, despite being given the resources to do so. I might put on the record here that the HSE and the Battle of Health got an extra £3.884 billion on top of the £20 billion that they had for 2020. That is not to mention what it has spent in this year. We are just coming to the closing. And it has shown us to think that we only have so little capacity in our ICU and so little increase. The waste has been just pure shocking. They have failed to build the hospital bed capacity in the ICU, despite being given, as I said, huge resources and given huge additional powers, which I will refer to in a minute, which are in this piece of legislation. Minister, in the last four weeks, and this is thanks to Deputy Tobin's PQ, 26 outbreaks have taken place in our nothing homes, 81 in our hospital settings, new outbreaks, 27 in residential care for people with disabilities, places that we need to protect and have them protected, and 7 in refuges and places of respite for women. We then pick on hospitality today. Once again, it is an easy group to pick on. They have been hammered all the way through. While there are very few cases in hospitality, I have them somewhere, but they would not come up to one of those in the hospitals, between hotels and pubs and all. I think there are about 12 in all in the last four weeks. It is shocking. Shocking if it is. I have serious concerns about the powers of NPHET. Their level of control over almost every element of our society at present, and their lack of accountability. I have a paediatrician contact me today, a very eminent one, saying that he wasn't consulted, or they weren't consulted. He certainly wasn't, but the paediatricians weren't, about the mask-wearing enforcement on children. Although it is only a requirement, you are putting the fear of God on the school boards of management and school principals. I have been contacted by numerous of them, who have a duty of care to the children, and they know that. They have responsibilities huge, and they know that. The boards are voluntary boards, who do tremendous work, and their principals and their staffs, and now they are in this perilous situation. NPHET have no paediatrician, I understand, on their extensive groups of people advising them. HICWA have advised them, in this case, twice already, not to mask young children. That was not good for them. And it has been turned in the bin. So if we want to close the nursing home, I want to use HICWA to do something, we do it. But when they give advice that NPHET don't like, we just bin it. So where is the model zone? When they are white off the mark, who holds NPHET to account? When there are leaks coming out from that organisation, and misinformation leading to despair within an industry, who are they to answer to? NPHET I am talking about. When they ignore bodies such as HICWA, as I said, implementing restrictions on our children, with no debate, no requirement for legislation, no pre-legislative scrutiny on this either, no parental consent, how can we say that we are operating in a functional and democratic society? We clearly are not. You and your Taoiseach, Antonister and Capital, have abdicated your responsibility to NPHET. And there are sideshows going on, and competitions for the airwaves. If it is not one, it is the other. And mixed messages have been appalling. NPHET have no business on the airwaves, yield the government, duly elected, they were voted in here, not thanks to my vote, but they were voted in here, a cobbled-up coalition. And you are either hiding behind NPHET, and you want to let them do this, or you think it is good, or else you have the gumption to face them down when they needed to be facing down. Yes, listen to their science when the science is correct. Yes, listen to their advice, but you make decisions for our people, not for somebody. I have asked you before, when you were going to sign all these thatchered instruments, which you have in this legislation tonight. When you were in opposition, you were railing against them. I asked you here before, knowing who is pushing your hand. What heavy hand is a big farmer's heavy hand, that is pushing you to sign those instruments, after instrument, after instrument, one mortar conning the next. As I said, here are we again facing severe restrictions, with Christmas coming topped, and people want to be happy, and have a celebration of the holy season of Christmas, and the birth of our Lord. Over 93% of our population, you tell us, have vaccinated. Where does this end? We are at a situation this evening where hospitality, once again, are facing and frightened restrictions, and never want to tell the public who they can and cannot have in their homes. We are going to get serious here. I mean, this is not fair. And the people now in the hospitality and other industries, as I said, are going to be forced onto pub payments again. I understand there are going to be pub payments for people, but what about all the people coming off them? They won't be able to get back on them again, and they need to be supported into the future and into the new year. What about the music and entertainment industry? There are many areas I could talk about here all night long, but I want to refer to this piece of legislation, draconian legislation that you have implemented here, that we only got the bill yesterday, that we got the briefing notes last Thursday late, and that you are a conglomeration of four pieces of previous legislation. Now we put into one, you did not call an omnibus, but you could, but it has given you dangerous powers. Power is a dangerous thing, Minister. You would never have sat in the office of the Minister of Health without these powers, so you do not know what it would like to be an ordinary Minister with normal powers. Extension of section 2, part 3 of the Health, Provision and Preservation and Other Emergency Acts of the Public Interest Act 2020, re-inserting a statutory instrument S38A in the Principal Act of 1974, raises serious legal and ethical concerns surrounding the detention and isolation of persons in certain circumstances. And it does, Minister. And this is not my vote, these are words of legal experts that have voluntarily had me to put this together tonight. And I might remind you that in 1971, sorry, in 1971, yeah, entailment was introduced open in these counties. In 1974, as I said, the section contravenes Article 5, right to liberty, Article 6, right to fair trial, Article 8, right to private and family life of the European Convention of Human Rights and Article 40.4 of the Constitution. Have you read all this, Minister? Have you looked at it a lot? Who is drafting it for you? And how do you think that you can have the power to be an instrument to deal with all this? There is no sufficient evidence base for the extension of the sweeping power, which provides a radical officer with the power to make an order in writing for the detention and isolation of such person in a hospital or other place specified in the order, which we do not know yet, including other hospitals or places specified, including other places, as may subsequently be appropriate and specified in the order, which you may fill in and sign, with no request at all, until such time as that that medical officer certifies that the person's detention is no longer required for the purposes of the section. That is quite draconian, Minister. By any advocacy, the medical officer can, he or she, invoke the powers under statutes of 38A Part 1, where he or she believes in good faith that a, a person is a potential source of infection, and b, the person is a potential risk to the public health, and c, his or her detention and isolation is appropriate in order to prevent and limit, minimise or slow the spread of COVID-19, and b, minimise the risk to human life and public health, and d, such a person cannot be effectively isolated, refuses to remain or appears unlikely to remain, appears unlikely in his or her home, or other accommodation agreed by the health services executive. You have to mind your own services. I just gave you the figures, courtesy of Deputy Taubina, of the outbreaks in hospital settings in the last four weeks, and compared them in other areas, they are minuscule in other areas, compared to what is going on under your watch and you are penalising the people. The necessity of the extension of this measure has not been demonstrated. In accordance with the Freedom of Observation Act 2014, the health services executive should and must provide details of how many orders have been made under Statut of Institution 38A1 since the inception of the emergency legislation in March 2020. We have not got that, Minister. I hope you know it. In the interests of transparency and openness, and in the public interest, for such information to be published before any debate on the extension of the necessity to extend power to detain an isolated person, depriving them of their rights, their fair trial and their private family life and liberty. Is that why you have no pre-legicist scrutiny in this legislation, that you did not bring into committee? The fact that you are bringing three or four pieces of legislation that has no pre-legic scrutiny, rushed through the door with little debate and passed the image of government majority? Is that why you would not want to? Because you might be asked these questions. Also, as Statut of Institution 38A2, a medical officer in making this power, shall have regard to the fact that COVID-19 is recently declared by the World Health Organisation to be pandemic. It was recently declared back in March 2020, Minister. How long are we going to stay stuck back? The clock stopped in 2020. The WHO have a lot of questions answered as well, so you cannot say this is a necessary implement now, 20 months later, 21 months later. It is now 21 months since the announcement of these emergency powers, and the State has had ample opportunity, ample opportunity to put in place the public health measures for the purpose of preventing, limiting and diminishing or slowing the spread of COVID-19, referred to under Articles 38A, with the consequential effect that this measure is no longer justifiable. Such a power can only be justifiable if the State can show a grave risk to life, and the recent statistics issued by the HSPC showed a dramatic decrease, thank God, in COVID-19-related deaths since 2020, Minister. This is the basic naked facts, and the science that has approved them. But you only use selective science. The reasoning and rationale for this measure no longer exists, and the State have not proven sufficient to justify any extension of such a draconian power. The existence of the Omicron variant, and ever-emerging new variants, is not sufficient remaining for such powers in a democratic society. Not at all, Minister. We can get variants, like with all the storms, and a different acronym for every one of them. The very fact that the medical officer can make an order under Statutory 38A if a person is a potential source of infection, and a potential risk to the public health, raises fundamental issues surrounding the subjective implementation of these terms. It is deeply concerning that one medical officer has the power to make such an order based on their belief, in good faith, that a person is a potential source of infection. In effect, this means that a person can be made subject to a detention and isolation order without testing positive for COVID-19. That is shocking, truly shocking, Minister, in my opinion, and the legal experts who I thanked that formulated this opinion with me. This means that a person could be detained and isolated by a medical officer as a result of his or her own subjective view, the medical officer, of what constitutes a potential source of infection and potential risk to public health. There are no safeguards in place to protect the fundamental rights and freedoms of the person who could be deprived of their liberty, on the word of the said medical officer. For example, in this current climate, it is not beyond imagination, Minister, that a medical officer could make such an order under Statut of Insta 381 for detention and isolation simply because a person is unvaccinated, for whatever reason, unable to take them or by choice or whatever reason. The power of detention is open to abuse of power process as the Act requires only one medical officer to make an order for detention. That is quite serious and dangerous in the so-called democracy, the so-called republic. Under Statut into 38A, the medical officer may, in writing, order detention and isolation of such person in a hospital or other place specified in the order, including such other hospital or other place as may be subsequently appropriate and specified in the order. You could decide it is the order. You could decide it is the order. You could decide it is anywhere. It is up to your officials and your hand to sign the order. Minister, do you realise what you are taking upon yourself? I think you do. I think you are punched drunk with these powers and you are having to clear the order under the patent or rein in that or deal with the epidemic in the medical system. In such time, the medical office, as I said, will continue there, including such other potential places as subsequently appropriate as specified in your order. In such time, the medical office certifies that the person's detention is no longer required. I do not see that different from what happened in the North in 1971. For the purposes of this section, the extensive power to detain a person in any place specified in the order is not defined under the Act, which effectively means that a person could be detained anywhere at the discretion of the medical officer. There are no definitions. Most legislations have definitions and have appeal systems. This is rushed again. No appeal legislative scrutiny. You are getting away with blue murder. If you get away with this, if enough people vote for it, I hope you do not. I certainly will not be. My colleagues in the Rural Independence will not be. The Act does not specify the maximum period of detention, which is another very serious situation. It states that a medical officer may in writing order the detention and isolation of such a person in a hospital or other specified until such time as the medical officer certifies that the person's detention is no longer required. So he is there at the whim of the medical officer. The medical officer is under a duty to review the detention no later than 14 days. You can be incarcerated for 14 days. The detained person has no right to request a review by another person other than that medical officer, or even another medical physician officer. But there are no details on this process. Therefore, it breaches the rules of fair procedure, due process and natural justice. Have you ever had the dose, Minister? Have you lost them all since you were independent with me? Then you were with the Social Democrats. Then you jumped to Fianna Fáil. Then it is easy to get to become Minister for Health. Have you lost all your moral compass and your respect for the people's rights and the Constitution? You must have. The State has therefore failed to justify the proportionality and necessity for such a fair-reaching measure, depriving people of their right to liberty. Very serious, a hundred years after we fought so hard. Tracy and Breen and Michael Collins and all the people who died in the War of Independence, and unfortunately the Civil War, and all the people who gave their lives and sacrifices. And to think then that I have had people here looking for people to be snitch lines, coming from parties I am very surprised with, to have reporting on people and everything else. We are dividing society, we are creating an apartheid, and it is totally, totally wrong. The variance is not specific enough reason for this, Minister. We have some clinical data, trial data from the pre-alpha strains, and lab data for Delta. We may overlook some data, but we have no epidemiological information that the vaccination has any impact on the epidemic. For Omnicom, the genetic data suggests that the vaccines may not work, it will take at least two weeks to find out whether they work in the labs, that is. As the example of the Delta has shown, even lab data is not enough to justify any restrictions or mandates. We need evidence that the restrictions and mandates have an effect. Just having them there is not good enough, Minister. Just not good enough that you want them there, and you like the powers, and you want to keep them, and you want to beat down our people, our very resilient, brilliant people. There are many people that have been lost and so sad in one life, but there are many people that have succumbed to this. The amount of people who have died in national hospitals that I have called time and time again for an internationally-led investigation of people, of what happened here, the incarceration of what went on here. I believe The Hague will have to invoke the trials to bring people before the courts there, the World Courts. Both the UK and Ireland had a narrow peak in late January and a nether in late May. The EU's nether was a month later. For the current wave, this means that Ireland's debts, thankfully, are rather remaining, that Ireland's debts are flat, that going up as much as the EU, thank God. Here, the Delta epidemic is that the UK and Ireland are past its peak. That's the Science Minister. They are the facts. Thankfully, the number of debts per day per million is 1,000 in the EU, which is horrific, 100 in the UK and 10 in Ireland. The 1 to 10 UK ratio per capita was the same for the last 18 months. There is ample science minister, if you want to listen to it. There is ample reason to behave. The people did put their shoulders to the wheel, and they invoked the sense of the mail, which we are very good at in our good old country, Ireland, and helping each other. They came out and got dinner. But now they are downtrodden, and they are broken, and you are trying to kill their spirit and the resolve. You have it done to many sections. The music, and our culture, and our tanga, and many other areas. Please, please, I ask you to withdraw this legislation. Bring it back to pre-legative scrutiny. It's time to give people hope. And together we can fight this, and go on honestly and truthfully, and face the people with truth. Well, hang on alright, go ahead.