Gavan Reilly: Politicians moaning about NPHET need a look in the mirror
After a week where it didn’t appear much in the headlines at all, Covid-19 and the topic of public health restrictions is once again having what the kids would call A Moment. Last Friday Stephen Donnelly told me there might after all be travel to Europe before the end of July - semi-contradicting Leo Varadkar who had said otherwise only four days earlier; the Sunday papers were full of speculation about what sort of mass gatherings might be permitted later in the summer, and suddenly all eyes are on Friday’s cabinet announcements.
Tucked into all of that were the conclusion of two court cases – one of a Cork woman who refuses to follow rules on indoor mask-wearing, and one of Declan Ganley who was told by the High Court his challenge to a ban on public worship was now ‘moot’ – and the debates about whether to extend the government’s emergency pandemic powers, and everything now looks very Covid-centric again.
The latter debate is ongoing as you’ll read this - the Seanad debated the legislation on Monday and Tuesday of this week; the Dáil will kick it off on Thursday - and there are honest beliefs on both ends of the spectrum. There are those who recognise that nobody ever wants to drastically curtail civil liberties like freedom of movement, but who are forced to do so given the constant threat of a virus; then there are those, who recognise the threat of the virus but have problems with how powers are continually handed over to ministers. Even Stephen Donnelly, who was responsible for getting the Seanad to sign off on the extension, admitted the powers he was asking for were draconian.
Watching the Seanad debate the legislation yesterday (Monday) I was reminded of some of the complaints you hear from politicians about how NPHET is running the world and nobody else gets a look-in. In the Seanad, for example, you had Michael McDowell demanding to know why NPHET’s Philip Nolan would impose limits on travel outside of counties – how did allowing further travel impose any danger on transmission? A decent question, but is Philip Nolan really the right person to ask? It’s Donnelly who receives that information and then converts it into a ministerial order. Ought the burden not be on Donnelly to scrutinise the advice instead of just faithfully turning it into law?
Which is why there ought to be a little more scrutiny paid to Donnelly’s logic for seeking an extension of the emergency powers until 9th November. The minister says it’s because the public health officials reckon restrictions, of one form or another, might be needed until the tail end of the autumn.
If the position is to make sure Ireland can resist new variants in advance of full vaccination, then fair enough… but when those restrictions will now lapse just as everyone heads indoors again for winter, it’s a curious line to draw.
Either way the most striking part of the debate was how politicians might claim to be emasculated, and circumvented by an unaccountable NPHET - yet then voted to give the government whatever power it wanted anyway. Only three senators voted against the extension of the emergency powers: McDowell, Rónán Mullen and our own Sharon Keogan. Did they realise exactly what might be at stake: that if the legislation were to be defeated or delayed, the existing powers would expire altogether on June 9th? Perhaps their objections were based on reasoned complaint about the curtailed debate, but blocking the bill would mean a legal free-for-all – no hotel quarantine, no bans on mass gatherings, no nothing – in a fortnight. Is that what they really want?
Gavan Reilly is Political Correspondent for Virgin Media News and Political Columnist for the Meath Chronicle. Read his column first, every Tuesday in the paper!