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A TD from Louth redoubled his insistence that troops be sent to the border to prevent travel between the North and the Republic.
Louth’s independent TD Peter Fitzpatrick said he had been inundated with support from Defense Forces officials since he made his call in the Dáil.
“Commanders, colonels and captains call me to say ‘200 percent correct,'” he said, adding that it was unpatriotic for people to do their Christmas shopping in Northern Ireland.
Fitzpatrick provided evidence from a text message from a superior officer noting that the border had been sealed during the foot-and-mouth disease crisis earlier in the century to “keep our livestock alive.” He added that now there is “a greater demand to do the same for our people.”
Tánaiste Leo Varadkar dismissed the suggestion that the army be sent to the border to seal the Republic, although he admitted that there was “a very important reservoir of infection” in Northern Ireland and that people traveling from one place to another posed a risk. real.
“The government is not considering putting the Army on the border between the North and the South,” he said.
“We fought and fought too much for too many decades to get all the armies off the border and we certainly don’t want to be the jurisdiction that puts uniforms back on the border.”
Mr Varadkar added: “We need to enforce the 5km rule, but it is better to do it with the Garda than with military means.”
Fitzpatrick told the Irish independent: “I’m not saying this for the headlines. Gardaí told me that people crossing the border point their fingers at them and tell them that they do not have to stop at the checkpoints and that they do not have the right to ask them questions.
“I want a united Ireland, but so far we have never been so far apart. I have never received so many phone calls and emails in support of something I have said.
“People cross from the south for their Christmas shopping, but they should buy locally instead. It is unpatriotic. Look at the sacrifices that companies have made at the border. Many of them will not open again if we do not support them. And the rule is that you cannot go beyond 5 km, it seems that we are all afraid to say so.
“We have to do something about the northern infection, where Covid is much, much worse, and at the moment we are not doing anything. We have to do something about it. “
Crossings from the north “will cause serious problems,” he warned, with about 30 border crossings from Omeath to Cullaville.
“As a former soldier in the 27th Battalion, I think it is time we started using the Army. There is a barracks in Dundalk with 450 soldiers. Why not deploy them in border areas? “
Fitzpatrick, a former member of Fine Gael, said that prevention was the best cure. “We have the opportunity to dothing. The Government should bring out the Army to stop the Southerners and Northerners who cross the border up and down ”.
There is no problem with people who have a real reason to travel, “but I have seen this develop in recent months and I do not like it,” added the TD from Dundalk.
“Northerners who come south are abusing the freedom to travel.
“The number of license plates from the north that I have seen is incredible.”
Irish independent
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