Health (amendment) (no. 2) act 2021

• Act Number: 24
• Enactment Date: 21 July 2021

Number 24 of 2021
HEALTH (AMENDMENT) (NO. 2) ACT 2021
CONTENTS
PART 1
Preliminary and General
Section
1. Short title, commencement and operation
2. Definition
PART 2
Amendments relating to certain indoor premises
3. Insertion of sections 31AB to 31AL to Act of 1947
4. Miscellaneous amendments to Act of 1947
PART 3
Amendments relating to quarantine in designated facilities
5. Amendment of section 38B of Act of 1947
6. Amendment of section 38G of Act of 1947
7. Amendment of section 38K of Act of 1947
Acts Referred to
Companies Act 2014 (No. 38)
Health (Amendment) Act 2021 (No. 1)
Health Act 1947 (No. 28)
Legal Services Regulation Act 2015 (No. 65)
Registration of Clubs Acts 1904 to 2008
Number 24 of 2021
HEALTH (AMENDMENT) (NO. 2) ACT 2021
An Act to—
A. make, on a temporary basis, exceptional provision, in the public interest and having regard to the manifest and grave risk to human life and public health posed by the spread of the disease known as Covid-19 and variants of that disease and in order to mitigate, where practicable, the effect of the spread of that disease; to amend the Health Act 1947 for that purpose; to provide for the lawful operation of certain indoor premises subject to certain conditions notwithstanding restrictions in place in relation to such premises under that Act; to provide, for those purposes, for a robust and enforceable system of verification of the health status of certain persons, including vaccination or recovery status; to confer a power on the Minister for Health to prescribe matters related to the foregoing; to provide for enforcement; and to provide for related matters;
B. amend certain provisions relating to pre-travel requirements in respect of certain persons arriving in the State; to amend the period to be spent by a person in quarantine at a designated facility in certain circumstances; to make provision in relation to the power of the Minister for Health to make regulations in relation to tests that may be taken for the purpose of detecting Covid-19 in the context of the requirement to quarantine at a designated facility and to confer a power on that Minister to prescribe the purpose for which such a test may be taken; to provide that quarantine at a designated facility shall not be required for certain persons arriving in the State in certain circumstances and to confer a power on the Minister for Health to make regulations in relation to those circumstances; for those purposes, and for related purposes, to amend the Health Act 1947 ; and to provide for related matters.
[21st July, 2021]
In relation to paragraph A of the foregoing:
WHEREAS a public health emergency has arisen and continues in the State by virtue of the spread of the disease known as Covid-19;
AND WHEREAS that disease, and the emergence of variants of the disease, and particularly the Delta variant, with evidence of increased transmissibility and the potential to evade immune response, and the spread of those variants, continues to present a very serious risk to public health and it is essential that persons testing positive or who are asymptomatic for the disease including in particular, variants of the disease, are restricted on a temporary basis from access to certain indoor premises given that the transmission of the disease has proven difficult to prevent;
AND WHEREAS a number of vaccinations for active immunisation to prevent the disease have been identified, authorised for use in the State and administered to part of the population of the State, and the availability of such vaccinations provides an opportunity to ease certain restrictions in force provided certain conditions are adhered to;
AND WHEREAS the existence of immunity as a result of having recovered from infection with Covid-19 also provides, in certain contexts, an opportunity to ease certain restrictions in force provided certain conditions are adhered to;
AND WHEREAS certain indoor social activities are by their nature high risk and are likely to involve significant levels of social mixing in environments conducive to disease transmission, which risk is diminished where participants in these activities have immunity from the disease;
AND WHEREAS the likelihood of transmitting, and the consequences of infection with, that disease are diminished in the case of persons who have been treated with such vaccines or who have recovered from infection with Covid-19, to the extent that allowing such persons to participate in certain aspects of the normal social and economic functioning of society presents a lesser threat to the State’s efforts to prevent, minimise, limit or reduce the risk of persons being infected with the disease than so allowing people who have not been so treated or who have not so recovered;
AND WHEREAS the easing of certain restrictive measures imposed on persons in the State as regards certain indoor premises is rendered safer from a public health perspective when accompanied by a robust and enforceable system of verification of vaccination or immunity status;
Be it enacted by the Oireachtas as follows:
PART 1 Preliminary and General
		Short title, commencement and operation
1. (1) This Act may be cited as the Health (Amendment) (No. 2) Act 2021.
	(2) This Act shall come into operation on such day or days as the Minister for Health may appoint by order or orders either generally or with reference to any particular purpose or provision and different days may be so appointed for different purposes or provisions.
	(3) Part 2 shall continue in operation for the period ending on the later of—
	(a) the 9th day of October 2021, or
	(b) the date that is specified in a resolution passed by each House of the Oireachtas under subsection (4).
	(4) Each House of the Oireachtas may, on or before the 9th day of October 2021, pass a resolution to continue Part 2 in operation for such period, not exceeding 3 months, that ends on a date specified in the resolution.
	(5) Part 3 shall continue in operation until the date on which sections 2 , 7 and 8 of the Health (Amendment) Act 2021 shall cease to have effect.
		Definition
2. In this Act, “Act of 1947” means the Health Act 1947.
PART 2 Amendments relating to certain indoor premises
		Insertion of sections 31AB to 31AL to Act of 1947
3. The Act of 1947 is amended by the insertion of the following sections after section 31AA:
	“Disapplication of certain provisions in respect of certain premises so as to enable those premises to grant access to members of the public under certain conditions
	31AB. (1) Without prejudice to the generality of section 31A, and any regulations made from time to time thereunder requiring an indoor operator to ensure that persons (or such class of persons as may be prescribed in such regulations) are not permitted, or otherwise granted, access to a relevant indoor premises, it shall be lawful, subject to subsection (2), for an indoor operator to permit or otherwise grant access to such premises provided that the indoor operator—
	(a) complies with the conditions in subsection (3), and
	(b) would, but for the aforesaid regulations, be permitted in accordance with law to permit or otherwise grant access to such premises.
	(2) It shall not be lawful for an indoor operator to permit, or otherwise grant, access to persons or such class of persons as may be prescribed in regulations referred to in subsection (1) during any period of time prescribed in regulations under section 31A during which access is prohibited.
	(3) The conditions referred to in subsection (1) are as follows, namely:
	(a) that the indoor operator has taken reasonable steps (including by inspecting such documents, if any, as may be prescribed in regulations under subsection (4)) to ensure that a person other than a permitted person is not admitted to a relevant indoor premises;
	(b) that the indoor operator does not knowingly permit a person other than a permitted person to access a relevant indoor premises;
	(c) that personal data accessed by an indoor operator for the purposes of paragraph (a) is not retained by that person;
	(d) that without prejudice to the requirement to adhere generally to such guidelines as are for the time being in place with respect to an indoor premises, the indoor operator adheres to such guidelines set out by certain bodies (or specific parts of such guidelines) as are prescribed by the Minister under subsection (4)(h);
	(e) that the indoor operator complies with such additional conditions as may be prescribed under subsection (4)(f).
	(4) Without prejudice to the generality of section 31A(1), the Minister may make regulations giving full effect to this section, and, without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, such regulations may, in particular, provide for all or any of the following:
	(a) the safeguards required to be put in place by the owners, occupiers, managers, licence holders of, or other persons (howsoever described) in charge of relevant indoor premises, including by reference to persons, or classes of persons, being permitted different levels of access to such premises on the basis of different levels of immunity or resistance to, or vaccination or inoculation against, Covid-19;
	(b) without prejudice to the generality of sections 31AC to 31AK, particularising or specifying further matters relating to the operation and enforcement, as the case may be, of any matters referred to in subsection (3);
	(c) prescribing additional classes of persons as permitted persons for the purposes of the definition of ‘permitted person’ which may, if appropriate, include persons who have received the results of medical tests the purpose of which is to detect the presence of Covid-19, or the virus SARS-CoV-2, in the person to whom the test was administered;
	(d)...