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

I wish to speak about Covid-19 and the necessity of an all-Ireland approach. The worrying stall in the reduction of cases that we are now seeing further adds to the urgency of doing everything possible to try to develop such an approach. Could the Taoiseach give us a report on his latest efforts in that regard and the communications he has had with the Northern authorities to try to push towards an all-Ireland approach? It is clear that divergence is a problem. We need to do anything we can to try to get that all-Ireland approach.

On Brexit, one thing we have learned from Covid, although it has not always been enough in my opinion, is that we can put in place income supports for working people when they are affected by a crisis. That lesson should also be applied to Brexit and contingency planning for the possibility of a hard Brexit. There is a lot of contingency in terms of supports for business, but there has been no discussion about supports for workers. I think we should have a workers support fund. There should be a Brexit crisis fund to support the incomes of workers who may lose out or lose employment as a result of the impact of Brexit.

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