Michelle O’Neill to become Northern Ireland’s first nationalist Prime Minister
Sinn Féin deputy leader Michelle O’Neill said the next few days would be “crucial” for Stormont’s return.
Its leader, Sir Geoffrey Donaldson, said there were grounds for Stormont’s return subject to legislation passed by Parliament and a date agreed.
Mr O’Neill, who has been tipped to be Stormont’s first minister, said it was an “optimistic day”.
Sinn Féin is the largest party in Stormont after the last parliamentary election, with the DUP the second party and has been given the role of deputy first minister.
The DUP has been disrupting the functioning of the executive and parliament since February 2022, protesting the post-Brexit trade deal.
Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris said on Tuesday he would publish details of an agreement between the government and the DUP on Wednesday that would “secure Northern Ireland’s place in the UK internal market”.
Mr Heaton-Harris will brief the parties on the agreement at Stormont Castle on Tuesday afternoon.
The bill was passed by parliament on Thursday and could be subject to a parliamentary recall on Friday or Saturday.
The first order of business is to select new speakers. This must be done before doing any other work.
image source, Getty Images
Sir Geoffrey Donaldson said an investigation would be carried out into how parts of the meeting were leaked
The DUP has introduced additional checks on goods moving between the UK and Northern Ireland, which it claims is undermining Northern Ireland’s position in the UK domestic market.
Sir Jeffrey said the new bill would “remove checks on goods traveling within the UK and remaining in Northern Ireland, and stop Northern Ireland from blindly following EU law”.
He added: “Legislation will be enacted to protect the Act of Union, which guarantees Northern Ireland businesses free access to the rest of the UK.”
He said these steps would be taken as a “legislative commitment” regardless of who forms the next UK government.
He said the party’s agreement was not perfect but represented a “good result” for Northern Ireland.
He added that he believed the government could move “quickly” to introduce legislation to implement the agreement.
TUV members were among the protesters who gathered outside the DUP executive meeting on Monday night.
Despite the remote venue of Monday’s DUP meeting being kept secret, party leaders were confronted by demonstrators carrying placards calling themselves “touts”.
BBC News NI understands that the DUP executive member behind the leak of the meeting was wearing a wire that relayed the leader’s speech to loyalist activist Jamie Bryson.
“Obviously I was not there and the venue was not being eavesdropped on by some hidden device. Therefore, the DUP felt this very strongly and took this unusual and unprecedented step. “It’s clear that there were senior officials within the organization,” he said. Bryson explained.
Mission complete?
I think Sir Geoffrey Donaldson is quite happy to have gotten this over the line.
Many people wondered if such a thing is possible.
Last night’s meeting lasted 5 hours, so I have to say we were right in that camp.
There was a sense outside the rally that things were not going well for the party leader.
So there was some surprise in the room when he admitted that his party was on the path to power-sharing, provided, of course, that the legislation was implemented by then.
Sir Geoffrey seemed quite relieved. Because he’s sure that meeting hurt him.
There are still divisions within the party, but I think he felt very much that the mission had been accomplished.
But Sir Geoffrey’s future challenge will be managing the aftermath.
Sinn Féin president Mary Lou MacDonald spoke at Stormont’s Great Hall on Tuesday and said she was pleased that Northern Ireland was “on the brink of government recovery”.
He added that Mr O’Neill’s appointment as Northern Ireland’s first nationalist prime minister would be a “huge moment”.
He said this was “a sign of the extent of change in the north and on the right across Ireland”, but acknowledged that the “order” of a return to power-sharing still needed to be agreed.
‘bittersweet’
Alliance Party leader Naomi Long said the DUP deal had a “bittersweet feeling” due to Mr Stormont’s continued absence.
Ulster Unionist Party leader Doug Beatty said the deal appeared to only meet three of the DUP’s seven tests.
Social Democrat and Labor MP Matthew O’Toole said there had been “tremendous damage” but said he hoped the executive would recover within days.
Traditional Unionist Voice leader Jim Allister said there was a need to “separate fact from fiction” and accused the DUP of “vile backtracking” on deals with the government.
image source, Getty Images
Public transport staff plan strike on Thursday
Sir Jeffrey said he had promised trade unions that pay public sector workers their payouts on priority when the system is restored.
Industry group Retail NI called on unions to end the move as a gesture of goodwill, saying it “will only cause further disruption to our economy”.
But Unite’s Davey Thompson said it was not enough for unions to call off action “because we don’t know when the government will form”.