On the 20th of March 2020, the Health (Preservation and Protection and Other Emergency Measures in the Public Interest) Act 2020 came into operation (hereinafter referred to as the “Act”).

Part 3 of the Act has been utilised by the Irish Government over the past 12 months to restrict the most basic fundamental human rights of every citizen of this country, such as making it an arrestable offence to leave your home unless you have a government mandated excuse permitting your travel.

Before the Act was signed into law, it was agreed that this Part 3 would expire on the 9th of November 2020, unless both Houses of the Oireachtas approved its continuation.

On the 22nd of October 2020, 92 TD’S voted to extend Part 3 of the Act.

The next vote to extend Part 3 of the Act must take place before the 9th of June 2021, noting that if this Part 3 is not extended, all restrictions around freedoms (with the exception of mandatory quarantine upon entry into the state) will cease.

We therefore have a window of eight weeks inside which to lobby TD’s to vote against the extension of Part 3 of the Act – noting that if we are successful, this would mean that on the 10th of June 2021 all businesses and churches could legally reopen, you will no longer be legally required to wear face coverings, the Gardai will no longer be able to question you under this Act as to your movements, limits will no longer apply to weddings or funerals and you can once again visit with family and friends without fear of being arrested and jailed.

As part of this campaign, we have reviewed the voting records of all TD’s for the past seven months in order to determine which TD’s would seek to preserve your fundamental freedoms and which TD’s would seek to exercise more control over your family, your business, your health and your life. Please click here if you would like to review this spreadsheet of information – noting that your TD’s do not expect you to be armed with this information.

You will note that the spreadsheet stipulates which TD’s we recommend that you lobby (noting that recommended TD’s are colour coded in green and yellow). For each of the TD’s we are recommending you lobby, we have prepared individual letters which specifically addresses each such TD’s voting record (please, therefore, do not use the same letter for every TD). We would also encourage you to edit the letter to address any specific concerns or experiences you have encountered over the past 12 months arising from the erosion of your freedoms.

We would strongly recommend that you only send letters to the TD’s who represent your constituency, as TD’s outside of your constituency will have little regard for your views. We would recommend that all of your focus and energy should be spent lobbying only those TD’s who will want and need your vote again (as your continued support for any such TD can be used as leverage). We would also strongly recommend that you send these letters by EMAIL AND POST (as we understand that some TD’s may be blocking emails with certain titles in the subject box).

This campaign has the single biggest chance of reversing the erosion of fundamental freedoms in the shortest space of time, but to stand any chance of success, we need thousands and thousands of people to write to their TD’s today and to persevere over the next eight weeks, until an assurance is secured that they will vote not to extend Part 3 of the Act.

Please click here to download letters which may be sent to selected TD’s.