Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

There is growing unease among all of us on the management of Covid-19 in Northern Ireland. Dr. Gabriel Scally, whom we all know well, said that if Northern Ireland was a football team, it would be in the relegation zone and the directors would be bringing in a new manager and coaching team.

It is deeply concerning to see ambulances parked in rows outside hospitals with the engines left running. The National Health Service, NHS, is at breaking point. The scale of the crisis in Northern Ireland is a situation we have never seen before. I am deeply concerned about how the Executive there, composed of Sinn Féin and the DUP, is dealing with this issue. We have reached a point where instead of playing politics, trying to be on both sides of many arguments, bickering and dithering, our Government needs to state very clearly that the Executive's way of dealing with this crisis is not working and is having a huge consequence for the rest of us on this island.

The infection rate in Northern Ireland is now four times the rate in the South. The difference in infection rates is alarming. Cork and Kerry have 14-day incidence rates of 25 per 100,000 and 30 per 100,000, respectively. In Northern Ireland, the local government districts of Antrim and Newtownabbey, Mid and East Antrim, Causeway Coast and Glens and Mid Ulster have all had 14-day incidence rates of 300 per 100,000 in recent days. In Mid and East Antrim the figure is more than 500 per 100,000. The people of the North have been let down. There has been a knock-on effect on our Border areas and further afield. The 14-day incidence rate in Donegal is the highest in the State at 225 per 100,000. My colleague, Deputy Ged Nash, has made serious representations on the situation in County Louth, where the rate is at 175 per 100,000. Cavan and Monaghan both have rates above 100 per 100,000.

We need action. The Taoiseach and the Government must make it very clear to the Executive, which does not have experience in making hard decisions, that it is going to have to change tack and quickly. I ask the Taoiseach to express his solidarity and that of all of the people of this jurisdiction with the workers and people of Northern Ireland, who are trying to deal with this issue. He should also express his deep unease with the strategy imposed by the Sinn Féin-DUP Executive in Northern Ireland. From our jurisdiction's point of view, this will have very negative consequences. He should offer whatever help is possible from our jurisdiction.

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