Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I endorse the call for a debate on the North because there are many issues and we need some kind of regular space to discuss these.

While we all want to see greater levels of all-Ireland co-operation and common work North and South, there are worrying signs that we are co-operating or echoing one another in the wrong areas. Last week, in the Royal Victoria Hospital there was a trolley crisis, with 46 people on trolleys. People before Profit representatives in Belfast tell me that is as a direct result of the closure of the city hospital. This parallels what is happening here, with the resurgence in the trolley crisis because, as a doctor from St. Vincent's said recently, of the closure of the 24 hour accident and emergency facility in Loughlinstown. This is a worrying sign of us co-operating and adopting common policies in the wrong areas and of applying austerity and cutbacks in a way that is detrimental to public services. This ultimately fuels the sectarian conflict, as different communities struggle and compete with one another for ever reducing resources.

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