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The minister said he had put mandatory vaccinations in the draft legislation "as an option". "I didn't support it - but who am I to tell the population of Northern Ireland 'you can't even have an opinion on that'?" He said his department would now have to "go away and re-engage with people and help them understand" the "draconian" elements of the existing legislation in the 1967 act and the need for a new law which reflects modern society. DUP health spokesperson Diane Dodds said the decision to scrap the bill was "long overdue". "From the outset, the DUP warned that the draft proposals represented a massive overreach and risked handing sweeping powers to the Department of Health without proper democratic oversight," she said. "The experience of the Covid-19 pandemic must never be repeated in a way that tramples on personal liberty or undermines public trust. Protecting health and protecting rights must go hand in hand."
