Taoiseach calls for calm in vaccine race as DUP peer accuses the EU of "letting the mask slip"

By PA news

Irish premier Micheal Martin has called for calm in the race to vaccinate populations.

Mr Martin was speaking in the wake of a move by the European Union (EU) to use a post-Brexit mechanism to interfere with supply lines of the jab.

The bloc later backtracked following outrage in London, Belfast and Dublin.

The Taoiseach said more people getting vaccinated across Europe is a good thing.

“We were watching what’s happening in the UK and saying, ‘well done, you are vaccinating quickly and that’s important’,” he told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show.

“Overall, across Europe we all need to roll out the vaccination programme as effectively and efficiently as we can, so I would like if we can dial down the tone and work collegially is the best way to deal with this.”

Asked whether he would like to see any UK surplus of the vaccination distributed to Ireland, Mr Martin said there is a long way to go yet.

“The UK has a long way to go, we have a long way to go, Europe has long way to go,” he said.

“I think all of us have a collective responsibility to ensure that the developing world, and particularly frontline workers in the developing world, are vaccinated as well because this is a global situation.

“There’s very little point in the virus raging across developing countries while we vaccinate 100% here because that would mean more mutations.

“We have a journey to go but I think we will get there if we can just calm down.

“There’s an understandable race against time in relation to getting the vaccines out but, if you think about it, what has happened in the last 10 months has been truly remarkable that we’ve managed to facilitate the development of vaccines in such a short space of time.

“I understand that anxiety, but we will get there.”

(The Taoiseach Micheal Martin)

However DUP peer Nigel Dodds has accused the  EU of letting its “mask slip” when it moved to over-ride part of the Brexit agreement on Northern Ireland to control shipments of coronavirus jabs.

DUP deputy leader Nigel Dodds has said the EU set a “precedent”.

His party has been voicing opposition to the Protocol on a number of grounds, including issues facing hauliers and the military facing additional checks while bringing equipment into Northern Ireland.

“I think that the mask slipped on Friday night because the EU and others had been lecturing everybody … that there could never be under any circumstances whatsoever any kind of hard border on the island of Ireland, and that to do anything to over-ride any of the Protocol provisions would be an anathema, and then in one fell swoop on Friday night it did both of those things … never mind the fact that it was aimed at vaccines, which is aimed at helping people overcome this terrible Covid pandemic,” he told the BBC’s Sunday Politics programme.

“I think that what what the EU has now effectively done is set a precedent that has said that in circumstances where their single market is in danger and there’s a potential threat, then the provisions of Article 16 can be triggered and, indeed, in their statement withdrawing Article 16 now, they made it clear that they reserve the right to use it and other instruments going forward.

“I think that the British government now has the opportunity to look at what the problems are between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the societal difficulties and economic difficulties, the EU cited as the reason for Article 16 are far more pertinent and far more in play in Northern Ireland given the problems with parcels, foodstuffs, medicines all the rest of it, and therefore the government now needs to look at what it can do to alleviate the problems between Great Britain and Northern Ireland that get rid of some of the insidious effects of this wretched Protocol.”

(DUP deputy leader Nigel Dodds)