Sinn Fein set to get top job at Stormont in post-Brexit deal
NORTHERN Ireland is on the brink of a return to power sharing for the first time in two years after the DUP ended its Stormont boycott.
After tense talks that ran into the early hours of yesterday, DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said his party was ready to back a deal that will see Sinn Fein’s Michelle O’Neill installed as the first ever republican First Minister.
Sinn Fein’s national leader Mary Lou McDonald claimed the move meant the reunification of Ireland was now within ‘touching distance’.
The arrangement includes £3.3billion in new funding for Northern Ireland, together with promises from Government that post-Brexit trade barriers between the Province and the rest of the UK will be eased.
Tory Brexiteers yesterday demanded to see the detail of the agreement, amid fears that it could weaken the UK’s ability to diverge from EU rules.
The DUP walked out of Stormont in February 2022 in protest at post-Brexit trade checks blamed for driving a wedge between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK. The political deadlock has left Stormont paralysed. Sir Jeffrey yesterday said the new deal would mean ‘zero checks, zero customs paperwork on goods moving within the United Kingdom’. He added: ‘ That takes away the border within the UK between Northern Ireland and Great Britain and that is something that’s very important.’
Downing Street declined to confirm his assessment, saying new proposals would be published following consultation with other parties in Northern Ireland.
Ministers remain nervous that the fragile deal could collapse if hardline loyalists judge that the detail does not match Sir Jeffrey’s rhetoric. Some members of the DUP’s executive were so concerned by the plan that they attended Monday night’s crunch briefing ‘wired up’ to enable loyalist activist Jamie Bryson to conduct a live commentary from outside on what were supposed to be private discussions.
Mr Bryson said: ‘If, as I suspect, the legislation is at variance with Sir Jeffrey’s glossy power point presentation, then he has a very big problem.’
Under the terms of the Brexit deal, Northern Ireland has full access to the EU’s single market to prevent the need for a hard border with the Republic.
But the arrangement has led to EU checks on certain goods entering from Great Britain, triggering unionist anger and shortages of some goods.
Rishi Sunak’s Windsor Framework deal last year dealt with some of the problems but was not enough to win over the DUP.
Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris, who will publish details of the legislation today, said he now believes that ‘all the conditions are now in place’ for Stormont to return.
The plans include a ‘screening mechanism’ to reassure unionists that proposals to diverge from EU laws will not create barriers to trade within the UK.
Whitehall sources suggested the agreement would make only limited changes to the UK’s deal with the EU. The Windsor Framework, signed by Mr Sunak last year, will not be amended.