Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (Covid-19) Bill 2020: Committee and Remaining Stages
Dail Éireann — 2020-03-26
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Darragh O'Brien (FF), Dublin Fingal

I wish to inform colleagues that the Business Committee has already decided the Dáil should sit next Thursday and the following Thursday. My proposal is that in 90 days, these extraordinary powers would be reviewed. Oversight has to return to the Dáil proper. The people in a Republic are sovereign through us as their representatives. That is why it is incredibly important that the measures taken here, whether they need to be extended in 90 days - that may be required - or reviewed at the least, a vote of the Dáil and the Oireachtas must be taken to affirm that it cannot be left to one person in what is a caretaker Government, through no making of anyone in the Government, to be able to sign forward future legislation where we are making extraordinary decisions with extraordinary expense, which is all necessary and I am not criticising the measures. These are extraordinary measures and the Dáil should be allowed to do its job in 90 days' time.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2020-03-26/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:48:14+00:00
Sitting date: 2020-03-26