Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I reject the assertions made by Deputy Tóibín. They are simply wrong and overly simplistic. There has been very regular contact at multiple levels. That is the way it has to be. I am engaged with the First Minister and the deputy First Minister. At the first North-South Ministerial Council in three and a half years, which was due to the Executive being collapsed, an assembly was held on 31 July. We brought the two Chief Medical Officers along to that, the Northern Ireland CMO and our acting Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Ronan Glynn. Covid-19 was a central agenda item of the North-South Ministerial Council. There was very good engagement on Donegal, Derry and Strabane at a practical level. The more this is hyped politically, the less it is going to happen. I will be straight up. Members can do all the grandstanding they like in the House, but the more grandstanding they do the less effective it will be in trying to get on the ground pragmatic engagement and co-ordination. That is my read of it and I will be straight up about it.

There are two jurisdictions, two health Ministers, two health systems and a CMO in the North and a CMO in the Republic. They meet and engage. The shared island unit is working more broadly. We have created a new unit for ongoing engagement across the board and Covid-19 is seen as an area that should transcend borders given the implications for everybody on the island. There is structured clinical engagement. I am surprised at Deputy McDonald's comment that the Minister for Health in the North has said that the Republic is not playing ball or is short changing them. I do not believe that is accurate. I know this from my conversations with the HSE. These matters should be left at the clinical level in terms of hospitals to hospitals. I do not want to engage in any way in the politicisation of that. It should be practical, pragmatic, clinical engagement on both sides of the Border. That is happening and it will continue. The Minister for Health, Deputy Donnelly, had a recent conversation with the Northern Ireland Minister of Health, Robin Swann. It was a constructive engagement. That is the reality of that. Deputy McDonald will be aware of how difficult it is within the Executive. Sinn Féin found itself supporting the closure of schools in the North and supporting the opening of schools in the Republic. Different approaches are being adopted. Sinn Féin will know full well the difficulties within the Executive. In this House, we have rows every day, including today, because people want exemptions for this and that. The same applies in the North. Some people in the North, politically, want certain sectors open and other sectors closed. There are different rows about that and it is the same in the Republic. As soon as restrictions are brought in people start to ask, "Can I get an exemption from that restriction or an exemption from another restriction?" This has happened in the Executive. It is my genuine view that the next agenda item is to try to see how things evolve in the North in the coming fortnight with incidences, level of cases, their position on the ending of their current phase of restrictions and the review of that and what they intend to do. This is important from our perspective. Our level 5 is to the end of the month and we want to get the numbers very low. I have also spoken to the British Government and to Boris Johnson seeking to make sure he would underpin and support the Northern Ireland Executive with the funding that might be required to help it support businesses as a result of the restrictions it brought in.

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