KEY MAN OUR MUMS

Foster and O’neill tell how bug has hit both their families

THE mums of the First and Deputy First Ministers have both been in hospital during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Michelle O’neill revealed the impact the virus has had on their families during an interview with Sky News.

But both leaders said the health emergency has also brought their parties closer together.

Mrs Foster added: “We only came back into government after three years out of government on January 11.

“We knew there would be challenges in front of us because we are a fiveparty Executive, then in a very short period of time we were dealing with a global pandemic.

“I think that we have shown that we can work together in difficult times. I’m not saying it’s a good thing that we

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have had a global pandemic but I think it has shown we have come together and we can work together.”

Ms O’neill admitted there have been differences of opinion in dealing with the fallout of the virus.

She added: “We were thrust into this very quickly after the Executive being restored and that in itself is challenging but I think the Executive colleagues

I think it has shown we can work together

have worked really closely together to try and chart our way through this as best we can – with that one objective, to try and save lives.

“We find it as hard as everybody else. We are political leaders in a time of crisis and all the family time that you do actually give up because you are serving the public – that’s all challenging.

“But we also have the same challenges personally as everybody else. My mummy was hospitalised over this – Arlene’s mum was also.

“We both have all those things to deal with at home as well as trying to

been infected by the disease. In a statement, the National Public Health Emergency Team said the HSE is now working to identify any contacts the newly-infected patients have been with.

The latest data from the Department of Health shows that of the 24,569 cases confirmed by midnight last Friday, 7,819