I thank all Senators for their contributions. I am delighted to be back. The debate in this House is excellent. I thank Senators for their kind words and for the debate. This legislation is no joke. I agree with various Senators who said they would never normally support legislation like this. I would never normally support legislation like this. This is emergency legislation and one of the safeguards we have in it is a sunset clause. Every three months, which is a very short period of time, it has to be passed by …

I thank my colleagues for all their contributions. It is an important and healthy debate and long may we continue to have it. Nobody has all of the answers. The Government does not have all of the answers, nor is there a government anywhere in all of the world that does. It is essential we have a debate and that we listen to each other because we are ultimately trying to achieve the same thing. We want to keep people safe, out of hospital and alive and we want to try to open up normal life in our country as much as…

I ask colleagues to think about that. If zero Covid is not the answer, and I do not think it is, why are we doing what we are doing? The advice I have from the Attorney General is that this must have a proportionality test because it is about depriving people of their liberty for two weeks in a designated facility, which is a very serious thing to do. There needs to be a proportionality test. The second point is that it is public health-led. The language used by Senator Higgins in putting forward this idea is that …

It looks right across. It is not fair to charge our Chief Medical Officer with playing favourites when it comes to giving advice on category 2 countries. In respect of the position of Sinn Féin, which was highly critical of the Government's position in the Dáil debate, I will point out the following. The regime we are bringing in is very similar to the UK regime. As Senator Bacik said, it is pretty much the same countries that feature on both lists. They are very similar. I cannot find any Sinn Féin opposition to t…

It will be communicated in various ways. Some of it will be worked through in the operationalisation of this. One of the main things we want to see is that people are aware of the information when they are booking their flights. There will be a legal requirement for people to pre-book their own accommodation in one of the designated facilities. We are working closely with the carriers such that if travellers have not followed the steps needed ahead of time, including the preflight PCR test and booking quarantine, t…

I was told I had ten minutes. Is it possible to get ten minutes?

I wanted to try to address as many of colleagues' concerns as possible. Is it not possible to get ten minutes?

I understand; I just wanted to check. I thank colleagues for their contributions today and yesterday. It is clear there is strong support across the House for hotel quarantine. Many issues were raised during the debate, with a variety of positions given. Some are calling for quicker opening up, others believe the balance is about right and necessary and others believe that further measures are needed and for longer. A common issue raised was the number of countries to which the requirement for hotel quarantine appl…

It is.

There are many questions. I was going to respond to everything. Is that-----

I think we will just wait until we get to that.

A Leas-Cheann Comhairle, I wish to check if I am in order. My intention now is to respond to the Deputies on the group we are discussing.

Thank you, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle. I thank the Deputies for what has been a very useful debate on the first group of amendments. I have taken many notes. I also recognise that other than one or two contributions, everybody who has participated in this debate on the Government and Opposition sides is trying to do the best thing for the country. We are trying to find the best solution we can, through legislation, to respond to the current situation. I thank Deputies for their amendments. Much work went into them. I …

There has been much talk about this legislation being a sham, a piece of theatre and minimalist. It is very important that members of the public, who may be watching this debate, understand that these allegations are untrue and that what we are doing is very real. I am basing that on the evidence. I have with me the latest report from the Department on quarantining across Europe. I will quickly go through the countries. I am happy to share this document with Deputies afterwards. One of the questions I asked the Dep…

The only jurisdiction where Sinn Féin is in government is the only jurisdiction that is not looking at hotel quarantine. That is relevant to this debate. I reiterate that there has been very constructive dialogue on a lot of issues, which I accept, but on this issue it is hard not to conclude that Sinn Féin is speaking out of both sides of its mouth. They are demanding it here in Ireland, but they are not looking for it where they can implement it in Northern Ireland.

As I said, that is relevant to this debate. I also could not find any media coverage where Sinn Féin vocally opposed and criticised the introduction in the UK, but it is doing so here. It is difficult not to conclude that there is politics being played here, which I do not think serves what we are all trying to do, which is to bring in a legally sound and robust mechanism. There were questions around consultation with the Garda. The Garda Síochána was consulted. Several of the amendments which I have tabled were ba…

Do I conclude my responses now?

No.

I move: "That Second Stage be taken now."

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time." I am sharing time with the Minister of State, Deputy Butler. I am pleased to address the House on the Health (Amendment) Bill 2021. The purpose of the Bill is to improve Ireland’s ability to respond to the ongoing threats to public health from Covid-19. It does this by amending the Health Act 1947 to allow for the introduction of mandatory quarantine at designated facilities for all passengers arriving from countries where there are variants of the Covid virus that…