Civil liberties concerns over ongoing Covid-19 restrictions

Executive Director of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, Liam Herrick: 'The question for us is whether the Oireachtas wants to allow the Minister for Health to retain unlimited power to make regulations without consultation.'

Calls have been made for an end to the use of emergency Covid-19 powers that are not subject to legislative scrutiny and may restrict the personal freedoms and rights of citizens for at least another five months.

The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) raised concern over plans to roll over Covid-19 emergency powers, granted to the Minister for Health, until November, with the potential for a further three-month extension beyond that.

The regulations imposed “significant limitations on all aspects of our fundamental rights”, ICCL executive director Liam Herrick said, adding that any extensions required evidence as well as scrutiny before the Oireachtas.

'Extraordinary ministerial power'

“If the Government is now asserting that this extraordinary ministerial power needs to continue and that the Oireachtas should continue to be excluded from scrutinising and considering legislation in this area, at the very least the minister should be putting forward evidence of that ongoing necessity,” Mr Herrick told the Oireachtas Committee on Health.

“This isn’t a question of whether specific restrictions may or may not be needed in the coming months. There is no doubt that the pandemic isn’t over and there is an ongoing threat. The question for us is whether the Oireachtas wants to allow the Minister for Health to retain unlimited power to make regulations without consultation,” he added.

'Ultimate sunset clause'

Mr Herrick said an "ultimate sunset clause" was needed to specify when the temporary powers would cease and that re-introducing any such powers in the future should require a technical report and “substantive” Oireachtas debate.

Mental Health Reform (MHR) also called for an end to emergency powers that were “no longer necessary”, in particular Part V of the Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (Covid-19) Act 2020, which was infringing on the rights of patients and their right to be heard at a mental health tribunal.

The pandemic exposed inadequate staffing, ICT shortfalls, and insufficient access to mental health services and highlighted the need for increased investment to rebuild services, MHR chief executive Fiona Coyle said.

“We cannot go back to a broken system. Now more than ever we need a fit-for-purpose, responsive, adequate mental health system in which people can access the care they need when they need it,” Ms Coyle added.