Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am surprised at how quickly the Deputy becomes sanctimonious. He is forever using Covid to score political points. He did exactly that in his contribution only half an hour ago and made no mention of the sad deaths of at least 50 people yesterday. Sinn Féin beats the band when it comes to using Covid to score political points, but it will not do the two things it should do to help. The first is to convince the Northern Ireland Executive to introduce the same rules as ours in respect of international travel. If its efforts in that regard fail, fair enough, but Sinn Féin should continue to try. There is no point demanding an all-Ireland strategy if the party does not do the one thing it could do to make it happen. Second, Sinn Féin must fully co-operate with the inquiry into Bobby Storey's funeral. The First Minister has said that the latter undermined confidence in public health in Northern Ireland and, indeed, the deputy First Minister, Ms O'Neill, has said the same. We have yet to hear from Deputy Doherty, who attended that event, whether he has been interviewed by the Police Service of Northern Ireland, PSNI, or how that investigation is going.

Regarding the issues the Deputy raised about the banks, I will let the Minister for Finance reply to him on them.

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