Concerns over protocol and health service are intertwined, Donaldson insists

Voter concerns over Brexit’s Irish Sea border and Northern Ireland’s under-pressure health service are intertwined, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has insisted.

The DUP leader was responding to the suggestion that most people going to polls in May were more focused on waiting lists and access to hospital services than they were about trading red tape created by the contentious Northern Ireland Protocol.

Launching his party’s policy document on reforming Northern Ireland’s struggling health system, which has the longest waiting lists in the UK, Sir Jeffrey said the protocol was adding to the woes of the local NHS.

As an example, he highlighted the potential for Northern Ireland to be excluded from UK-wide Covid-19 testing arrangements as a result of the regulatory structures established under post-Brexit trading arrangements that have effectively seen the region remain within the EU single market.

Launching his party’s Fix the NHS plan at Bangor Health Centre, alongside DUP North Down candidates Stephen Dunne and Jennifer Gilmour, Sir Jeffrey said: “The protocol impacts on health care issues, it impacts on the cost-of-living issues, it is driving up the cost of food in Northern Ireland…  because the cost of bringing those products from Great Britain has gone up by 27% in the first year of the protocol.

“I’ve been out in every constituency in Northern Ireland in recent weeks, I’ve been knocking doors with our candidates, and the protocol comes up regularly. People are very concerned about what it means for the future of Northern Ireland, for our political and economic stability.”

He added: “It is adding to the very real difficulties that people are facing in Northern Ireland.”

The DUP collapsed the Stormont Executive in February when it withdrew First Minister Paul Givan in protest at the protocol.

Sir Jeffrey has warned that his party will not return to a powersharing administration post-election until the protocol is replaced, either by way of an agreed settlement with the EU or by the UK government acting unilaterally to suspend it.

“I want to see Stormont up and running as soon as possible after the election, that’s why I continue to press the Prime Minister either to reach agreement with the EU, or to take unilateral action to remove the Irish Sea border and to do what the Government promised to do, and that is to restore Northern Ireland’s place within the United Kingdom,” he said.

“The sooner that happens, the sooner we’ll have a functioning executive, and Stormont will be fully back to business.

“Ministers remain in place, decisions can still be taken but of course I want to see a fully functioning Stormont.”

Sinn Fein Stormont leader Michelle O’Neill said parties had to be prepared to form a new executive on day one after the election.

She suggested there was little point in the DUP unveiling election policy documents if the party did not intend to return to powersharing after May’s poll.

“You have to be in an executive in which to deliver on any plan, whether it be five points, six points, or seven points, that’s the first starting point,” she told reporters on a visit to a family centre in north Belfast.

“We need an executive up and running immediately after this election. I’ll lead our team there, no matter what the outcome of the election is I’ll lead our team there to work with others to do the business, to actually get money out into people’s pockets to help them deal with the cost-of-living crisis and to start to transform and fix our health service, which is something that we all need to be very much focused on.

“So, I think that the priority for us all has to be how do we support people through this cost-of-living crisis and how do we fix our broken health system?

“How do we employ more nurses and doctors? How do we ensure that we ensure better outcomes for people whenever they need our health service?

“So, there’s a huge amount of work to do but we need all parties at the executive table on day one, setting up a programme for government, agreeing a budget and getting on with doing our job.”