Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
ON ICE FOR SUMMER
Stormont power-sharing talks to be shelved amid deal row
TALKS to restore power-sharing are to be shelved for the summer amid bitter recriminations over the failure to strike a deal. While the DUP and Sinn Fein said they were prepared to engage in the coming weeks, both acknowledged substantive negotiations would not resume until the autumn. Imminent recesses at Stormont and Westminster and heightened community tensions around the marching season are among the factors inhibiting a breakthrough in the short term. Sinn Fein’s Stormont leader Michelle O’neill claimed the Conservative Party’s parliament deal with the DUP was one of the main reasons efforts to establish a new administration have floundered. She said: “What this constitutes is a monumental failure on behalf of Theresa May. “She has set back decades of work that has been done here throughout the years and it’s a consequence, as we all know, of the DUP supporting the Prime Minister and the Prime Minister in turn supporting the DUP.” The DUP has cited Sinn Fein’s “excessive demands” as the reason for the logjam. Arlene Foster suggested a deal will now have to wait until at least the autumn. She added: “We are disappointed we don’t have an agreement. “We are going to keep working at it through the summer and hopefully we can come to an agreement later on in the year. “We are certainly up for an agreement, we are up for devolution.” The DUP and Sinn Fein remain at loggerheads over a range of issues including the shape of legislation to protect Irish language speakers, the DUP’S opposition to lifting the ban on same-sex marriage and mechanisms to deal with the legacy of the Troubles. An official suspension has yet to be confirmed by the Government. Any pause in the process would likely require it to intervene to pass a budget for Stormont. Mrs Foster and Mrs O’neill both insisted MLAS should continue to get paid, stressing their representatives would continue to work hard over the summer.