Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Businesses in north Kildare were just accommodating the prospect of Brexit when the coronavirus hit Ireland. Now they face the double whammy of a novel virus, about which little is known, and a British Government that is novel about Brexit in ways that some never imagined. However, what is imaginable and reachable now is a united Ireland in the broader context of Brexit. My party leader, Deputy McDonald, is quite right when she says that a united Ireland is everybody's business now, not only North and South, but also east and west and in my constituency of Kildare North. This is something my party will be bringing to all the people in the time to come, and doing so serenely and with pride. It is unfortunate for Irish politics that while the Fianna Fáil Taoiseach excoriates his fellow citizen and Sinn Féin leader, Deputy McDonald, he simpers over the Tory Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, and the three ring Brexit circus he is running. Fine Gael has "the United Ireland Party" in its subtitle. I hope Fine Gael will put more thought into effecting that united Ireland than it did into commemorating the Black and Tans, as if any Irish person could forget them. That might bring us further along in our joint endeavour.

In my constituency, there is concern among local businesses and those working in the equine industry about what Brexit will mean for them. I applaud them for the way they have risen to the regulatory and bureaucratic challenges, not to mention their nerves of steel in the face of the political shenanigans across the water. Businesses in north Kildare, particularly in the non-food retail sector, still feel bruised as the county is now into its fourth extension of restrictions.

We must discuss business and Brexit in the context of the virus. Self-employed people in my constituency, too, are suffering the effect of Covid poverty. The Taoiseach might think the pandemic unemployment payment, PUP, is not tenable but neither is poverty, as the Tánaiste noted on Monday evening. I am currently working on the case of a taxi man, an essential worker and fine gentleman who has worked hard all his life. After being struck by Covid and being on a ventilator for 12 days, he is now being denied the PUP. This has left him and his family stricken. There is Covid poverty in my constituency and throughout the county. We turn a blind eye to banks that broke a country and almost collapsed a currency yet we put hard working men and women under the microscope for a relative pittance by comparison.

We cannot face the economic shock of Brexit unless we take a big picture approach. The many self-employed and small businesses facing into Brexit need a citizenry with money in their pockets. That is why we must face Brexit with policies that protect our workers and look after small businesses, many of which are family businesses. We must face it with policies that make the economy work around society and not vice versa as we have seen. Covid-19 has laid bare all the fault lines in society. It has shown us that the shallow politics of PR has nothing to offer us in times of crisis. Unless we have the kind of Government and policy that put people and their life stories first, not elite profit, those fault lines will deepen and broaden under Brexit.

We are facing a winter like no other. The Chief Medical Officer has said tonight that the Covid situation is rapidly deteriorating and that NPHET is seriously concerned. I want to assure businesses and workers across North Kildare that Sinn Féin is and will be on their side. We will be calling for every possible support from the Government for them. Our alternative budget will outline this in detail. I refer especially to our small businesses which are already hanging by a thread and suffering acutely from the Government's lack of competence, courage and clarity in its handling of the virus. These are difficult times but they are also opportune times to imagine a better, deeper and kinder way of doing business as a society and as a State. Brexit and Covid need to be tackled on an all-Ireland and a united island basis.

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