Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the update from the Taoiseach. He will appreciate that it is a brief update. That is no fault of his or anyone in the Government. That is the striking issue here. North-south relations are not operating at their optimum due to a political decision by a certain party in Northern Ireland.

I note that the last telephone conversation call was in the area of dealing with Covid-19, where back and forth discussion needs to be increased in the coming weeks as we look to loosen restrictions and possibly moving away from the wave of the current variant. Will the Taoiseach address the efforts being made between the chief medical officers and health Ministers, North and South, to maintain that important level of engagement on vaccination numbers, restrictions and hospital capacity, which has been a huge concern, particularly in Northern Ireland?

I echo the Taoiseach's disappointment that the meeting of the North-South Ministerial Council has not taken place. Now that we are into an electoral cycle in Northern Ireland, from our vantage point it is important to keep pushing the door and not allow certain political actors to derail the important North-South engagements in every area.

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