Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has claimed it’s “dangerous” for the North and Republic of Ireland to pursue different strategies when it comes to tackling the Covid-19 pandemic.
Speaking ahead of a Government decision on new restrictions today, Mrs McDonald urged the Government to reintroduce a ban on evictions if new restrictions are put in place, in order to “rekindle that often-used phrase – we’re all in this together.”
But she told RTE’s Morning Ireland that “it is extremely unhelpful – in fact, I believe that it is dangerous, it’s not good for the protection of public health – that we have two different approaches, two different strategies.
“The advice in the north that the executive followed was to close schools. The advice in this jurisdiction was to keep them open.
“We have two sets of advice on the island of Ireland – one in the north and one in the south.”
She called on the State to put in place additional supports to help those whose incomes are affected by the imposition of new measures.
“Additional restrictions, whatever they are, have to be matched by additional supports and protections,” she said.
Mrs McDonald would not be drawn on whether Ireland should enter a six-week lockdown, as recommended by the country’s National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET), or if a more short-term approach would be better.
But she said that “keeping people well and safe – and alive, quite frankly” has to shape Government policy.
Another lockdown, she said, “would be really, really challenging and difficult for all of us, but I also know that as we speak the virus is growing exponentially.
“There are certain things in this pandemic that are unpredictable and unknowable, but what is very predictable is that this virus spreads really, really quickly.
“The numbers and the data don’t lie.”
