Arlene Foster right to front up Stormont Executive’s Covid strategy

Sinn Fein’s Northern Ireland leader, as she has belatedly now admitted, fatally undermined Stormont’s messaging on the Covid-19 restrictions by attending the funeral of the IRA terrorist in west Belfast.

It was bad enough that other senior Sinn Fein figures organised and participated in the funeral when for months people around the Province had been unable to say goodbye to their dead loved ones in the traditional way.

However, it was much worse for Ms O’Neill to have been seen so prominently. There is reason to believe that the flagrant breaching of social distancing rules at the Storey funeral has led some members of the public to treat the rules less seriously.

Arlene Foster was entirely right to stop the joint press conferences with the deputy first minister and right to demand an apology from Ms O’Neill, an apology that has never come despite her new words of “regret”.

However, with Northern Ireland’s average rate of Covid infections now the highest in the UK it was right for the first minister to front up the messaging on Covid-19 as new restrictions were announced yesterday.

Robin Swann, the health minister, has led recent briefings, but with the greatest respect to Mr Swann, the public needs to see the first minister front and centre of the messaging.

If people are being asked to make yet more sacrifices, they need to hear why and how from their first minister.

The Executive was right not to penalise businesses with its restrictions. Most bars have been very diligent in enforcing social distancing regulations and every effort must be made to keep the wheels of the economy turning while stopping the spread of the virus. The latest restrictions seem a considered first step and if people in the relevant areas can make the sacrifice and follow them it may keep us all from greater pain.