John McGahon (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Some Members spoke for 1 minute and 20 seconds more than their allotted time, which was rude, but I will stick to the time in deference to the Acting Chairman.

As we have been delayed again because Senators spoke for too long I will scrap what I was going to say and focus on one issue. Senator Elisha McCallion is absolutely correct in her call for an all-island approach to tackle Covid. That is the one and only time in my career in this House, however long I will be here, that I will agree with Sinn Féin. The Senator, like myself, is a Border politician so understands what the Border area is like and I only live a few miles from the Border. We have seen huge increases in Northern Ireland and in Border constituencies so unless we have a dedicated Border plan to reduce Covid then there will be a really difficult winter experienced by communities like mine in Dundalk and north County Louth. It is essential that our public health requirements and restrictions mirror as closely as possible the same restrictions in Northern Ireland. It is madness. There is no reason the South should be on level 4 and Northern Ireland on level 2 because it will lead to a lot of people criss-crossing the Border due to different restrictions. At the minute there is good co-operation between the HSE, the NHS and various Departments but we need to massively increase that communication otherwise people living in Border communities will have a very dark winter indeed.