Richard Boyd Barrett: Demands Pay Parity and Assembly Restoration

So it's not acknowledged often enough, there is another 32 county party in this country and they're called People Before Profit and we have an assembly member for West Belfast and a number of councillors in Belfast and Derry and interestingly in the recent elections our vote in West Belfast went up by 5% going from 10 to 16% which I think by any standards is a significant improvement for a party that organizes not on green or orange lines but on the basis of socialist politics and uniting Catholic and Protestant working class people in their common interests and one of the key issues that came up when I was canvassing in West Belfast was the health service and indeed it is an issue that is dominating and of course it echoes the situation down here because why are nurses in the north and health workers on strike at the moment because people are waiting up to two years for important operations because they're put on trolleys in A&E wards and because of actions by the Tories but sanctioned by the two major parties in the north or not challenged health workers in the NHS in the north earn less than their counterparts in the UK and what I really I suppose would ask the Taoiseach wouldn't it be a very reasonable thing to say that the restoration of the assembly should be conditional on increased investment to address the crisis in the National Health Service and in a clear commitment to pay parity for nurses and health workers in the north with their counterparts in the UK which is a major issue affecting people across sectarian lines in the north thanks very much want to thank deputies once again for their contributions I do think there is a real window of opportunity now to re-establish the northern Ireland assembly the executive and also the north step north south ministerial council between now and the deadline on january 13th but there had been windows of opportunity in the past and unfortunately it wasn't possible to come to an agreement so it's far from granted at this stage the alternatives though are not palatable certainly the Irish government could not support a return to direct rule nor do I think new elections for the northern Ireland assembly would provide a solution either Deputy Martin asked that all five major parties should be meaningfully included in the talks and I absolutely agree with that sentiment not just the two major parties but all of the five major parties as well and I definitely think the strong performance of the SDLP and the strong performance of Alliance is noteworthy but I also want to congratulate all 18 newly elected MPs in the House of Commons and I look forward to meeting with them and working with them throughout the course of 2020 I'm sure that any agreement that the parties do come to assisted by the two governments will want to deal with the burning issues that concern the people of Northern Ireland whether it's the deepening health crisis, homelessness or the economy and I think Deputy Smith's points on legacy issues are also very well made and again I'm sure that the parties will want to do that and of course the governments have a particular role to play when it comes to helping to bring a solution or resolution to some of those legacy issues as far as the government's concerned it's going to be our role to support the parties in Northern Ireland to come to an agreement, a programme for government and also to work very closely with the British government to achieve our shared objective which is to restore power sharing in Northern Ireland to restore structured north-south cooperation as envisioned by the Good Friday Agreement and also to strengthen, rebuild and renew the bilateral relationship between Britain and Ireland as the United Kingdom exits the European Union Now we move on, Tisha, to six, seven and eight I understand you're taking them together, Tisha I oppose to take six to eight together The Cabinet Committee on Security is the most appropriate Cabinet Committee to discuss policy related to drug gangs as it deals with issues related to justice, community safety and policing reform The Cabinet Committee on Security last met on the 30th of October however separate to that I met with Commissioner Harris on the 3rd of December and he updated me on the work of An Garda Siakana in relation to drug gangs Government is committed to ensuring that Ireland is a safe place for all The continued disruption of the supply of all illicit drugs remains a priority for An Garda Siakana and for the other state agencies tasked with responsibilities in this regard Guarda Management keeps the distribution resources under continuing review in the context of crime trends and policing priorities to ensure that the optimum use is made of these resources Record investment is currently being made in An Garda Siakana, 1.76 billion was allocated to the Guardi in 2018 and this would increase to an unprecedented 1.882 billion for 2020 This investment is aiding the sustained growth of the organisation I understand that these additional resources have enabled An Garda Siakana to appropriately staff specialist bureaus such as the GNDOCB which I always get wrong the Guarda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau who leads on the strategy for tackling drugs and also works with the Guarda Divisional Drug Units nationwide in demand reduction and supply reduction as well at a local level and what you don't get to mention about the warned