Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael)
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The UK will be leaving the European Union. Let us look forward with regard to co-operation with the United Kingdom and in particular with the Ireland and Northern Ireland issue. Does Lord Sumption not believe that now is the time for both Ireland and the UK to sit down and come up with a framework for dealing with an issue like this, rather than trying to put it together the week an issue starts to arise?

One thing about Covid-19 was that it needed a fast reaction but there was no framework for dealing with it in most countries across Europe and the world. Is it not now time, in particular with the UK leaving the European Union, and Ireland being so close to the UK, to have a sense of a mechanism in place to enable work to start immediately an issue like this arises again?