Emer Currie (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

For somebody like me, the question is not whether I want a united Ireland but what kind of united Ireland I want. It is a question of what kind of united Ireland I have wanted since I was old enough to understand my Irishness was different from that of somebody who lived in a neighbouring county and that this could never be taken for granted. It is very difficult to explain how one can feel pride and longing at the same time.

We will never get there if we cannot be honest and do not understand and empathise with every perspective and truth on this island. We know from the Good Friday Agreement, finding peace when it seemed so elusive, that this is where we can find progress. Talking about a singular all-island Covid strategy as if it is as deliverable as it is logical is deeply disingenuous. It deepens the disconnect of perspectives and the realities of North and South. It takes something that instinctively feels right, easy and simple but diminishes the truth that it is, unfortunately, just not that simple.

It is not enough for me that a certain party continually calls for an all-island Covid strategy because it is the logical solution. It is and to many of us it feels like putting aside identity and putting lives first. It is not like that for all communities that share the island and Sinn Féin knows that well. Let us ask its party members what they are doing about it and what have they done. What are they doing to bridge perspectives beyond their own? If the answer is "nothing", they are offering nothing but false hopes when people are losing their lives, and that is unforgivable.

We will get nowhere in building a shared island or a shared Covid strategy if we refuse to recognise and acknowledge different perspectives and truth. The work of reconciliation, respect, compromise and consensus-building is required not just today but every day and we should all work to that. In the absence of an all-island Covid strategy, which I wish we had, we must align as much as possible and put our energy and efforts into that. We should all work to that too.