Senator dubs Govt response on priest fine ‘pathetic’

Senator Ronan Mullen has dismissed a reply from the Department of Health as “a pretty pathetic response” after he asked the Minister for Health to clarify the State’s legal position on public worship.

Almost two months after asking the question, Mr Mullen was told in the letter that the matters he raised are subject of proceedings in the High Court and that the State is opposing the proceedings. It added that “where the court has yet to make a determination, it would be inappropriate for the minister to make further comment in respect of the interpretation of regulations…”

The proceedings being heard in the High Court were brought by Galway-based businessman Declan Ganley, who is challenging the constitutionality of the regulations that restricted religious worship.

Speaking to The Irish Catholic, Mr Mullen said: “We’re left with an unsatisfactory situation that the State appears to have prosecuted people on the basis of a risky and ambiguous law, the answer to that has to be a reckoning of some kind.

“It is a lame excuse, to say that the matter is before the court so therefore, ‘we can’t comment on this’. They could say ‘this is our argument, this is the argument we will make in court’, there’s nothing to stop them. It’s a fairly well-worn path by Government to pretend that it can’t answer questions that in fact it can.”

A Co. Cavan priest who was fined by gardaí for celebrating Mass in March with some of his parishioners present – which Mr Mullen had mentioned in his query to Government – also called for clarity on whether he had committed a penal offence at the time, and whether his fining was lawful.

A new Covid-19 statutory instrument, SI 171/2021, was added in mid-April by Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly, which was unambiguous in outlining that religious worship with congregations present was a penal offence.

Fr PJ Hughes of Mullahoran parish said: “I don’t know what’s going to happen. It’s confusing for me because the fine was issued and the file was sent to the DPP but then after all that happened it [SI 171/2021] was signed into law so I don’t know why they fined me in the first place.

“I assume there’s going to be something issued for me to go to the court because I didn’t pay the fine. It’s either a law or it’s not, if it wasn’t in law why did they fine me?”

Mr Ganley’s case is up for mention June 22.