Covid situation in Northern Ireland ‘very worrying’ - Martin

Taoiseach Micheál Martin has warned that the Covid-19 crisis in the North could happen in the State “if we allow things to go out of control”.

Expressing solidarity with Northern Ireland where patients were being treated in rows of ambulances outside hospitals because of the lack of beds and increasing incidence of the virus, Mr Martin said the situation there was “very, very worrying and concerning”.

He said the issue would be discussed at the North-South ministerial Council meeting on Friday and “we will work with our colleagues in the Northern Executive”.

He believed the North's Minister for Health Robin Swann had led well throughout the crisis as he faced a challenging situation.

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“It’s a multi- party Executive and that does create its own challenges,” he said.

Mr Martin added that “it also illustrates the exponential growth of the virus once it gets to a certain critical level and we in the Republic need to take note of what’s happening in the North in terms of how we behave collectively and individually”.

Warning that “every contact matters”, he said “what we’re witnessing in Northern Ireland could happen here if we allow things to go out of control - which we’re not going to do”.

The Taoiseach was responding in the Dáil to Labour leader Alan Kelly who said the Northern Executive had"no experience of taking hard decisions" and will have to change tack quickly.

Mr Kelly said the country was shocked to see rows of ambulances parked outside hospitals treating patients and the NHS was at breaking point.

“We’re in a situation we’ve never seen before with the scale of the crisis in Northern Ireland.”

How the North dealt with the crisis “has consequences for us all in the rest of this island,” he warned.

“Instead of Sinn Féin and the DUP playing politics, trying to be on both sides of many arguments, bickering and dithering, maybe we have reached a point where our Government needs that the way they’re dealing with this crisis isn’t working.”

He called on Mr Martin to express “your deep unease at the strategy being imposed by the Executive in Northern Ireland and that from our perspective this is going to have very negative consequences”.

Mr Martin did not criticise the Sinn Féin-DUP Executive but said it was regrettable there had not been alignment in recent months between the two jurisdictions against the virus.

He acknowledged that the Border counties in the Republic had a higher incidence rate than elsewhere in the South.

“There are political sensitivities here. It is to be regretted that we didn’t have complete alignment over the last number of months, but that is as it is,” he said. “We want to work in solidarity, and any help we can give, we will give.”

Mr Kelly warned the crisis in the North was already having “a huge consequence on the rest of us on this island.” The infection rate in Northern Ireland is four times what it is in the South,” he said.

“If you look at the numbers, the difference in infection rates is alarming. in the counties of Cork and Kerry we have a 14-day incidence rate of 25 and 30, but in the local districts of Antrim, Newtownabbey, the Causeway coast, the Glens and Mid-Ulster all have 14-day incidence rates of 300 in recent days, and in Mid- and East Antrim the figure is over 500.

“So the people of the North have been let down” and that had consequences for the rest of the island.

“The 14-day s incidence rate in Donegal is the highest in the State at 225 per 100,000, and in Louth it is 175, while Cavan and Monaghan are both over 100.”

Acknowledging the situation in the North was very worrying and concerning, Mr Martin said it was also a challenge across Europe as he cited the Netherlands and Germany were “closing down before Christmas”.