‘Unfinished business’ of public sector pay deal a key priority at Assembly
THE new Stormont power-sharing executive will be united in dealing with the “unfinished business” of funding for public services in the North, DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has said.
Party leaders met at Stormont Castle yesterday to discuss the key priorities for the incoming Executive ahead of it being formed today.
Speaking following the meeting with other parties, Sir Jeffrey said: “It is important when the Executive meets that we have a real sense of what those priorities are for everyone in Northern Ireland.”
The DUP leader would not be drawn on who his party will nominate for the role of deputy First Minister – which wields the same powers as the First
Minister.
However, there has been speculation that
Lagan Valley MLA
Emma Little-pengelly will take on the role.
The UK Government has offered a €3.8billion package to secure
Northern Ireland’s finances when the Assembly returns, including
€700million for public sector pay claims.
However, Sir Jeffrey indicated that the parties would be working together to secure more cash from the Treasury.
He said: “We had a really good discussion around the table with the other parties. We agreed with the other parties that this is a priority, you will hear more about that in the coming days.
“There is agreement about what we need to get from the Government.
“You will not have to wait long to see the new Executive in action, making those priorities clear to the Treasury and pressing them for additional funding which is required.
“The finance piece is unfinished business which we intend to finish.”
Sir Jeffrey has said he will “hold the Government’s feet to the fire” to ensure it delivers on the deal which has restored devolution, set out in a command paper titled Safeguarding the Union.
The DUP leader told BBC Radio Ulster: “There is undoubtedly a trust issue here. I will hold the Government’s feet to the fire, there are new mechanisms. I’m not just relying on the UK Government.
“There’s a new independent monitoring panel to be established under this agreement, which will hold the Government’s feet to the fire as an independent body.”
Ulster Unionist Party leader Doug Beattie confirmed his party will enter the Executive when it is restored.
Michelle O’neill and Alliance Party leader Naomi Long also attended yesterday’s meeting, but left without speaking to the media. While Sir Jeffrey has secured the backing of a majority of party colleagues to accept the deal, there are those inside and outside the DUP who are sceptical.
However, Sir Jeffrey was given a significant boost yesterday when an Orange Order chief declared his support.
Grand Secretary of the Orange Order Mervyn Gibson, writing in the Belfast Telegraph, said while the deal was not perfect it was a “win for unionist determination and unity and needs to be accepted as such”.
Meanwhile, a former attorney general for Northern Ireland rejected the contention that a Government deal to restore Stormont had removed an Irish Sea border.
John Larkin KC was commissioned by vocal opponents of the agreement to assess the legal effect of the measures.
The opinion was commissioned by TUV leader Jim Allister, loyalist activist Jamie Bryson, former Brexit Party MEP Ben Habib and Baroness Kate Hoey.
But Sir Jeffrey said he “fundamentally disagreed” with the conclusions of Mr Larkin’s opinion.
History made as nationalist Michelle O’neill takes on top Assembly job
grandmother. Her political career began when she replaced her father on Dungannon Borough Council in 2005, later becoming the first woman to hold the post of mayor in the borough.
She was first elected MLA in 2007, alongside party veterans Mr Mcguinness and Francie Molloy, as representatives for Mid Ulster.
Mr Molloy, now the area’s MP, said: “She is not one who rushes into commentary. She would be a good listener, observe and take account.”
Ms O’neill soon became Sinn Fein’s spokesperson for health and sat on the education committee. Her rise continued when she was appointed agriculture minister in 2011. In 2015, she took on her more high profile role of health minister, where one of her first actions was to lift the ban on gay men donating blood.
By the time Sinn Fein collapsed the institutions in 2017, in protest at the DUP’S bungled green energy scheme, then Deputy First Minister Mr Mcguinness was in poor health and Ms O’neill had been identified as his replacement.
Following his death later that year, she became Sinn Fein’s Stormont leader and was elected as vice president in
2018. In January 2020, Ms
O’neill became Stormont’s Deputy First Minister, just months before the Covid pandemic struck. The Executive was to be in place for just two years before the DUP collapsed it again in protest at post-brexit trading arrangements. In 2022, Sinn Fein, with Ms O’neill the forefront, made history
at when it became the biggest party in the Assembly for the first time, a result repeated in last year’s council poll.
However, Ms O’neill has also faced criticism for her attendance at events commemorating IRA members.
In 2020, she faced calls to resign as Deputy First Minister after attending the funeral of republican Bobby Storey in Belfast in 2020 when strict limits on such events were in place due to the pandemic.
In 2022, O’neill said in an interview there was “no alternative” to the IRA’S armed campaign during the Troubles. She said: “I don’t think any Irish person ever woke up one morning and thought that conflict was a good idea, but the war came to Ireland.
“But now, thankfully, we have an alternative to conflict and that’s the Good Friday agreement.”
However, Ms O’neill has also broken new ground for republicans through her attendance at the funeral of the late Queen in 2022 and the coronation of the King in 2023.
She said: “It was the respectful thing to do, to show respect and to be here for all those at home, who I had said I would be a First Minister for all.
“Attendance here is about honouring that and fulfilling my promise.”