Cllr Emer Tóíbín: Where Is The North-South Covid-19 Road Map?
Aontú Cllr. for Navan Emer Tóibín has queried the lack of a North-South Roadmap to fighting and living with Covid-19, highlighting the effect that the absence of any cross border cooperation is having across the 32 counties.
Cllr Tóibín: “There is compelling – in fact overwhelming – evidence that one of the most effective policies that can be adopted to combat Covid-19 on the Island of Ireland, is an All-Ireland Response to the Coronavirus. The Covid-19 pandemic has served to underscore the division between the two authorities on our Island. Partition has not only precluded Irish unity, but Irish solidarity on such existential threats such as Brexit and Covid-19.”
“A constituent from Dunshaughlin told me yesterday that the town is full of northern reg cars as builders commute daily from the North to the building sites there. Many of the town residents are up in arms as they grapple with their own 5 km travel restrictions and cut in wages due to regulations to stay at home off work. The wider implications of people travelling from a region with higher rates of Covid transmission and case numbers needs immediate robust debate - the government's foot-dragging has been incredibly lame and an overall deliberate admission of not wanting to go anywhere near the issue of Irish unity.”
“However much the government might want to say that Irish Unity is a solely emotional and ideological pursuit, and that greater unity of purpose will be sure to antagonise certain communities, it remains undoubtedly true that the lasting legacy of partition will be one of pain inflicted on all 32 counties, from Meath to Derry. Covid-19 merely pulled back the facade that this was not the case.”
