Rivals agree to restore government
Northern Ireland’s major political parties have agreed to restore the Belfast-based government, three years after it collapsed in acrimony and left 1.8 million people with no regional government.
Northern Ireland, a part of the United Kingdom, has been without a functioning administration since the power-sharing government fell apart in January 2017 over a botched green energy project. The rift soon widened to broader cultural and political issues separating proBritish unionists and Irish nationalists.
But with a deadline of tomorrow looming to get back to work or face new elections, the pro-British Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and Irish nationalists Sinn Fein said yesterday they had agreed to a draft deal brokered by the British and Irish governments.
‘‘We are ready to do business,’’ said Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald.
The DUP earlier said the agreement was ‘‘not a perfect deal’’ but could be supported. ‘‘We believe there is a basis upon which the assembly and executive can be re-established in a fair and balanced way,’’ leader Arlene Foster said.
The breakthrough came when, after several days of intense talks, the British and Irish governments on Friday published a draft proposal to revive the Northern Ireland Assembly and executive.
Several previous attempts to restore power-sharing between Sinn Fein and the DUP had come to nothing. But the UK’s looming departure from the European Union, due on January 31, has given new urgency to attempts to restore the government. Northern Ireland has the UK’s only border with an EU member country, and Brexit will challenge the status of the currently invisible frontier, potentially pushing Northern Ireland into a closer embrace with the Republic of Ireland.
Northern Ireland also faced a January 13 deadline to restore the government or face new elections for the assembly that could see Sinn Fein and the DUP lose ground.
The deal addresses divisive social and cultural issues in Northern Ireland, as well as the increasingly parlous state of its public finances.
It includes measures to protect the Irish language, which is important to nationalists, as well as the Ulster Scots tongue that is the heritage of some British unionists. It also promises UK government funds for big infrastructure projects and cashstrapped public services.