NORTHERN Ireland’s devolved government can be restored in “short order” after a three-year breakdown, Sinn Fein says.
Talks on ending the deadlock resumed in Belfast yesterday.
Stormont has been inactive since January 2017 when the powersharing agreement between the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and Sinn Fein broke down in the wake of the “Cash for Ash” renewables subsidy scandal, which saw individuals paid public funds they were not entitled to.
If no agreement can be made by January 13, a new election may be called.
Civil servants have been granted additional powers to run public services in the interim, but the legal provision for that will end when the clock runs down.
One of the major obstacles holding up a fresh deal has been laws around the Irish language.
When the process paused before Christmas, both UK and Irish governments indicated that the DUP was standing in the way of a deal.
But that party rejected the claims, insisting it would not be “bounced” into a “quick fix” that would fall apart under stress.
Yesterday Sinn Fein’s Conor Murphy, who represents Newry and Armagh, said there was “no need” for talks to play out until the deadline.
He said: “We think agreement can be reached in short order, we don’t see any need to run this down to the wire to January 13 in some kind of dramatic way.
“The issues that we are dealing with are all well-rehearsed, what we need now is political will to get down to resolving very, very quickly and that is going to be our focus in the next day or two.”
On some of the issues where agreement remains to be reached, Murphy said: “There are obvious ones around language provision, the petition of concern and its usage, but there are also issues this afternoon which will be talked out around programme for government, financial resources available to any new executive.
“This place can’t function if we can’t deliver for public services, we can’t just sit here and be an instrument of Tory austerity. We have to have sufficient public resources to be able to deliver services which recognise the particular circumstances in this part of Ireland and the difficulties we face. There are a range of issues which will be discussed in the next couple of days. None of them, I don’t think, need to be exhausted ad infinitum, we need to be bringing this to a conclusion.
“There are pressures continuing to mount in relation to public health, health services and the treatment of staff in the health service. We need to get back working again so we can fix those as quickly as possible.”
Secretary of State Julian Smith, Irish foreign affairs minister Simon Coveney and local parties – including the SDLP, Ulster Unionists and Alliance – took part in the Stormont House summit.
While some meetings were
cross-party, Sinn Fein and the DUP each held separate meetings with Smith.
Union flags were held aloft outside the venue by protesters opposed to the inclusion of an Irish Language Act in any potential deal.
Smith will assume a legal obligation to call a snap Assembly election if the latest talks fail.
Expectations of a breakthrough rose after the DUP and Sinn Fein both suffered bruising results in the General Election.
However, they remain Northern Ireland’s largest parties and while other groupings can take a position on the talks, the executive can only be reformed once the DUP and Sinn Fein agree terms to re-enter a mandatory coalition executive.
DUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson said seeing the devolved institutions restored remains an “absolute priority” for his party and insisted outstanding issues like “fair pay” for healthcare workers must be “properly addressed”.
He stated: “We want this done as quickly as possible but we also want to ensure that the agreement is fair and balanced, that it is sustainable, that the political institutions that are restored are sustainable, that we have a lengthy period of political sustainability.
“We are not in the business of snatching at something because there is a deadline.”
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