‘Increasingly untenable’ for DUP to refuse to restore powersharing – O’Neill
Sinn Fein vice president Michelle O’Neill said that she was not feeling positive after a meeting with Chris Heaton-Harris.
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Your support makes all the difference.Sinn Fein vice president Michelle O’Neill has said that it is becoming “increasingly untenable” for the DUP to refuse to enter powersharing over Brexit and the protocol.
She said there had been no indications of a “chink of light” on the talks between the UK Government and the DUP, and said she was not feeling “very positive” after a meeting with Chris Heaton-Harris at Hillsborough Castle.
The Northern Ireland Secretary is chairing bilateral talks with the leaders of the main Stormont parties in his latest effort to break the powersharing impasse.
The talks are taking place ahead of the largest public sector strike in Northern Ireland’s history on Thursday when workers in 15 trade unions will take part in mass industrial action across health, education and the civil service.
The Assembly has been effectively collapsed for almost two years. The DUP is refusing to participate until unionist concerns around post-Brexit trading arrangements are addressed.
The party has insisted it will not end its blockade until it secures legislative assurances from the Government on Northern Ireland’s trading position within the UK.
Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris has said his talks with the party over the Windsor Framework have concluded, although the DUP has insisted engagement is continuing.
Ms O’Neill said on Monday that this is “increasingly untenable”, and said there had been no indications of a “chink of light” on the UK Government-DUP talks.
“I think the further we get away from the Windsor Framework, which was completed last year, I think it’s increasingly untenable that the DUP can hide behind that argument that this is about Brexit and the (Northern Ireland) Protocol,” she said.
“I think many people, reasonable minds, would turn their heads to ‘is this about that or is this about the election result of May last year?’ I think that that will become very clear in the coming days.”
The Sinn Fein vice president said that Mr Heaton-Harris had indicated during their Monday meeting that he would introduce new legislation if there is no restored executive this week.
“Clearly, he has decisions to make as to what comes next. If we get to Thursday and there still is no restored executive, then there has to be new legislation, and he’s indicated today, that’s what he will do,” she said at Hillsborough Castle.
She called on the DUP to end the stalemate in the “small window” before Thursday’s deadline.
It comes as the Stormont Assembly is to be recalled later this week in a bid to back a motion to endorse fair pay settlements for public sector workers.
The recall petition tabled by Sinn Fein received the required 30 MLA signatures.
The Assembly will sit at 12pm on Wednesday.
Several previous attempts to reconstitute the Assembly have already failed as the DUP has not supported the election of a speaker at the outset of the sittings.
It isn’t the fault of workers in Northern Ireland that we have this situation, they should not be used as leverage in the political arena
Ms O’Neill also agreed with Alliance Party leader Naomi Long that political talks need to be divorced from the issue of public sector pay.
In December, the UK Government offered the parties a £3.3 billion package to stabilise finances in Northern Ireland, including £600 million to settle public sector pay claims.
However, it is dependent on the Stormont institutions being restored.
Stormont parties have said Mr Heaton-Harris should release the funds for the public sector pay awards immediately.
Ms O’Neill said: “We find ourselves in a scenario where the politics are stagnant and the money that’s there to pay public sector workers is hanging in the balance. So, we made sure that he was pretty clear of our view, which is that that money should be paid and he (Heaton-Harris) should absolutely divorce the two things.
“He’d have to speak for himself in terms of what he intends to do and I think that will become clear over the course of the coming days, but we won’t give up in terms of pressing the case for the money to be paid.”
Mrs Long told the BBC: “The pay issues need to be divorced from the current political impasse.
“It isn’t the fault of workers in Northern Ireland that we have this situation, they should not be used as leverage in the political arena.
“If we don’t get the Assembly restored, he will still have to make decisions around pay so I see no reason why he (Mr Heaton-Harris) can’t do that at this point.”
The Northern Ireland Office has repeatedly said that the Secretary of State has no authority to negotiate pay in the region as it is a devolved matter for the Stormont parties.