I thank the Taoiseach for the welcome but not the answer. I asked him specifically about the Covid certificates and whether he had evidence they have lessened the impact or reduced the cases. Clearly, they have not and he has no evidence. If he had, he would produce it. The Taoiseach referenced the debate here. There was no pre-legislative scrutiny of any of the legislation that went through, including the Bill which will be debated here this evening. Many of his backbenchers and all his three parties were bemoanin…

At committee.

That is no excuse.

No, it is not.

They can.

How is that the case?

It has.

Hear, hear.

On the same issue, this is a shocking crisis all over the country. The Taoiseach said earlier that the Government's primary role is protecting people's health and caring for people. People are being abandoned. Money is being thrown at this, but we cannot get people to do the work. I salute the carers and the people providing home help, but they are running from Billy to Jack doing what they can in limited time. People are ending up in hospital because they cannot get home care packages. The situation is as bad in T…

We were here last Friday discussing this and I made my views very well known at that time. We have tabled a number of amendments. I thank Brian Ó Domhnaill in our office for doing the research on this but it is all a useless, futile effort. I said this last week and I will say it again. When the Minister was on an taobh seo den Teach he was opposed to these powers. He stood up vigorously opposing them. Each and every one of us, including myself and my five colleagues in the Rural Independent Group, supported these …

I will be as brief as I can. I wish to speak to amendment No. 24. Like the previous speakers, I feel the Minister seems to have set his face against accepting any idea, suggestion, engagement or interaction with the Opposition. I do not want to be repetitive. That is what is happening now. We have been locked out of everything for more than 13 months. That includes the other Opposition groups and the one I lead. The Minister knows best; he knows it all. This amendment simply asks for things we should know, such as …

I will finish because there others and many more amendments to get to, including from ourselves. He told me that he would deal with the pandemic and we will do the science later. People are fed up with the science being done later. As I said today, they are war-weary. We cannot afford this. Consider the business people, or mental health, or the backlog of cancer and other issues that are killing our people. All our eggs are in the one basket. It is a very dodgy basket and the bottom is going to fall out of it one o…

Hear, hear.

We have not got the numbers.

I have a point of order. I would ask the Minister how we can scrutinise the regulations.

The Minister introduced the topic. He said that we could do so at any time when we cannot.

That is not true.

On a point of order-----

I am on record as saying it. That is not true. It is simply an untruth. The Minister knows that. When he was in opposition with me, we attended meetings in Government Buildings. We supported all the measures from the start, until the genie got out of the bottle and we knew the kind of a fraud the Minister was.

There is nothing factual. The Minister should stick to the facts.