New research published by the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission has found that the Government has persistently blurred the boundary between legal requirements and public health guidance in its COVID-19 response.
The study, a first of its kind evaluation of Ireland’s use of pandemic related emergency powers, also sets out significant concerns that human rights and equality scrutiny has been side-lined when emergency powers have been put in place, and makes recommendations to remedy this.
Authored by experts from the COVID-19 Law and Human Rights Observatory in Trinity College Dublin, the study looks at the 4 statutes and more than 65 sets of regulations enacted between March and December 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.