This afternoon.

He’s really angry.

Labour leader Alan Kelly said mandatory hotel quarantine needs to be introduced immediately.

Speaking on RTÉ’s News at One, he said it is not good enough that it will be a number of weeks for the legislation that is being brought in to become operational.

Mr Kelly said that “we’ve locked up our people three times to stay within 5km of their homes, the choice into the future is do we continue to do that or do we quarantine people coming in”.

Meanwhile….

The Government is seeking to increase fines for non-essential international travel from €500 to €2,000.

Speaking in the Dáil, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said that around 60% of international travellers arriving into Ireland are returning Irish holiday makers.

He told Labour’s Duncan Smith that “there is a sense that €500 is not a sufficient disincentive to travel abroad“.

Plans to increase international travel fine to €2,000 (RTÉ)

Earlier: A Voice In The Wilderness

The vintage Soviet Russian collages of Dutch artist Tamara Stoffers. None of your digital jiggery-pokery here. Sez she:

The Soviet Union has a mysterious appeal to me. Its typical visual language in architecture and art feels nostalgic to some and is still relevant to others. I compose my images of old books concerning the USSR, cutting and pasting to create new situations. For me, crafting these works is a game. By digging through archives without a preconceived plan, I subconsciously find visual connections. My biggest challenge while doing this lies in the limitations caused by the size and subject of the source material. Subtle traces of the material and of my interventions, like grids and cuts, show that the basis is strictly analogue.

thisisnthappiness


“Labour has to consider what the lockdowns are doing to people’s minds and to people’s heads….you don’t realise that because you are far removed from what is going on in rural Ireland….do you want to keep them in the wilderness, is that what this is all about?”

This afternoon.

The Dáil at the Convention Centre, Dublin.

Independent Kerry TD Danny Healy Rae rails against the Labour Party’s National Aggressive Suppression Strategy Bill.

Calling it “Zero Covid by another name”, Labour leader Alan Kelly had earlier told deputies:

“We want to suppress and destroy the virus and basically ensure that we get it down so low to double digits that we can give Ireland the chance that 2021 will be different from 2020, because the people are at the end of their tether, and they need it.”

Labour wants Government to admit ‘Living with Covid’ plan is a failure (Irish Examiner)

Meanwhile…

FIGHT!

Last night.

Tuam campaigner Breeda Murphy and adoptee and activist Eunan Duffy discuss the refusal by Justice Yvonne Murphy (top) to take questions from TDs and Senators about her controversial report into Mother and Baby Homes.

Judge Murphy had asked for an alternative date for her appearance before a joint Oireachtas Committee on Children, but has now indicated that she will not attend.

The commission of investigation is to be dissolved on February 28.

This is the eighth episode in a series of shows with Eunan and Breeda dealing with Mother and Baby Homes across the island of Ireland and the issues facing birth mothers and adoptees. All are available on our YouTube channel.

Meanwhile…

Mother-and-baby homes were shrouded in secrecy and some witnesses who gave evidence to the inquiry were traumatised individuals who had never spoken to anyone about being in the institutions.

The confidential committee hearings were set up to allow survivors to describe their personal experiences in a non-confrontational way.

Anonymity was assured and their accounts and allegations were to be listened to without challenge.

Privacy was a concern for many witnesses and, given several said their pregnancies were a result of rape for which no-one was convicted, their testimonies were legally sensitive.

The Data Protection Commission said: “We have written to the commission with a number of questions around the deletion, and the legal basis for the deletion, of these records.

“We are awaiting their response.”

When asked about the deleted recordings, the inquiry told BBC News NI it had explained the matter in its final report.

“Witnesses were asked for permission to record their evidence on the clear understanding that the recordings would be used only as an aide memoire for the researcher when compiling the report and would then be destroyed,” the report stated.

Mother-and-baby homes: Questions raised over recordings being deleted (BBC)

Broadsheet.ie