DUP ISSUES WARNING OVERPOWER-SHARING ‘GOVERNMENT CAN’T SUBCONTRACT ROLE’
THE government must not “subcontract” its role in restoring power-sharing in Northern Ireland, the DUP has said.
Leader Arlene Foster said there was a part for independent mediation in helping break the 20-month impasse at Stormont.
She met Prime Minister Theresa May in London yesterday as the government explores convening fresh political talks.
Mrs Foster said: “We believe there’s a role for facilitation, but we also believe the British must not subcontract their role, because of course, under the Belfast Agreement, until the people of Northern Ireland decided otherwise, the United Kingdom government is in charge of Northern Ireland.”
She held a “detailed” meeting with the Prime Minister about decision-making in Northern Ireland in the absence of a ministerial Executive in Belfast following serious disagreements between former coalition partners, the DUP and Sinn Fein.
Power-sharing collapsed early last year in a row over the DUP’s handling of a botched green energy scheme and the dispute over identity issues like the Irish language has seen negotiations fail. Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley met the five main Stormont parties this week, as she contemplates another push for agreement and is seeking their views about external facilitation.
Independent mediators helped previous rounds of political progress in Northern Ireland, including brokering the Good Friday Agreement 20 years ago.
Mrs Foster said civil service decision-making should be quickly rolled out amid the political paralysis.
“There is a whole range of decisions that need to be taken in Northern Ireland very, very urgently and we want to see that happening quickly.” Asked about
talks, Mrs Foster said the “first thing we have to get set in motion” was putting in place decision-making.
Deputy leader Nigel Dodds said there must be a “full commitment to the continuing delivery of all the money that’s coming to Northern Ireland” under the confidence and supply
arrangements. Alliance leader Naomi Long said Mrs Foster is “living in a dream world if she genuinely still believes Northern Ireland’s growing political problems can be solved without the aid of an outside mediator”.
“Arlene Foster’s comments are either extremely arrogant, or she is showing a complete lack of un-
derstanding, which is shocking for her role in this process,” the East Belfast MLA said.
Meanwhile, Sinn Fein vice-president Michelle O’Neill met Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney in Dublin. She was pictured in a wheelchair after recently breaking her leg.
She said the British Govern-
ment had prioritised the survival of the minority government and its arrangement with the DUP.
“We have been fairly firm in the belief that all along their plan was to do nothing and now I am even more concerned because I believe their plan is to prevent the restoration of the Executive.”