The Leas Ceann Chomarile, Catherine Connolly TD, has said that the government’s handling of vaccine certs has made her “lose all trust in the democratic system.”
The remarks were directed at Health Minister Stephen Donnelly this week during a debate on the Health (Amendment) (No.2) Bill 2021, where Connolly slammed the Minister’s failure to carry out a human rights assessment for vaccine certs.
Catherine Connolly, independent, on how the behaviour of the government in rushing through #VaccineApartheid and vaccine coercion without even pre-legislative scrutiny has caused her to lose trust in the democratic process. pic.twitter.com/7E3aS4afNN
— JRD (@JRD0000) July 14, 2021
“The Minister has ignored the Irish Council for Civil Liberties and the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission,” the Independent TD said.
“The Irish Council for Civil Liberties wrote to the Minister in June. It has drawn up a number of documents. It has pointed out the importance of human rights assessment and assessing each legislative item and how it should be focused, targeted, certain and foreseeable. All of this is gone by the window.
“This is serious because the Irish Council for Civil Liberties and the policing authorities have repeatedly told us that people were on board. The Policing Authority told us the people of Ireland were on board and did not need enforcement actions. In fact, they were 99% compliant before any enforcement.
“It is extraordinary that the more we vaccinate, the more we use enforcement. That is an appalling scenario, with no pathway out. If the Minister is reopening restaurants and pubs, he should reopen them when it is safe to do so and at reduced capacity.”
She went on to say that the Minister’s handling of the issue has made her lose all trust in the democratic process.
“The Minister is here today and I find it very difficult to have any empathy or understanding,” she said.
“I have lost all trust in the democratic system. All we have in the end is democracy, however weak it is. I am a democrat through and through, but to be asked to put this legislation through in this manner with absolutely no basis to it and no human rights assessment is beyond my language.”
Continuing on, the Deputy accused Minister Donnelly of “undermining trust in the democratic process.”
“I have no words to convey the hopelessness, except to say to the people who are sensible that I believe in them,” she said.
“They have the power. As my colleague said, let us comply with public health guidance by washing our hands, masking and keeping a distance. Vaccination is part of that, but it always must be voluntary, never discriminatory and never on the basis the Minister is introducing. He is undermining trust and the democratic process.”