From Sir Jeffrey Donaldson <[email protected]>
Subject Our schools deserve more than political stunts
Date January 8, 2022 9:14 AM
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John

Yesterday marked the first time in Northern Ireland since 26th July last year that no Covid related deaths were registered in the previous 24 hours. As I have said previously, the threat from Omicron is real and we all can see the pressures on our health service, not least because of staff availability.

Targeted and effective action against Covid continues to be necessary, but unfortunately party politics too often comes into play. Nowhere more can that be seen than in Monday's recall of the Assembly to discuss the situation in our schools.

Back at the start of December the Education Minister Michelle McIlveen wrote to recently retired teachers and others asking them to make themselves available where possible to cover absences due to Covid-19. This took place several weeks before the SDLP Education Spokesperson was calling on her to locate additional staff.

Similarly, Sinn Fein have been happy to issue calls for investment in equipment which could cost up to £100million yet unable to say whether their Party colleague the Finance Minister would actually support any request for funding to pay for them.

Parents, teachers and pupils deserve better than political posturing like re-calling the Assembly for what is little more than a stunt.

As we move into January, this is a critical month in relation to the Northern Ireland Protocol and the need to restore Northern Ireland's place in the UK internal market. This was a key commitment made by the Government in the New Decade New Approach Agreement which was the basis for restoring the political institutions. It must be honoured.

On Monday I will be meeting with the Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, who also now heads up the UK's Brexit negotiations. She cannot allow negotiations to drag on endlessly. The Protocol isn't working and is costing Northern Ireland £2.5million every day. That’s almost £1 Billion a year.

The Road Haulage Association have outlined how the Protocol has added 27% to the cost of bringing goods into Northern Ireland. It is very clear that there are no advantages to the Protocol but instead the situation is set to get worse.

As Government trader support schemes draw to a close and the so-called grace periods end the cost of the Protocol will only continue to rise even further.

Having secured a return by the EU to the negotiating table, I have sought to be reasonable and allow time for progress to be made. If the Government will not trigger Article 16 then other action needs to be taken and if necessary I will do that. The protocol represents an existential threat to the Union and we simply cannot ignore this.
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