Bid for talks to end stalemate in N Ireland

DUBLIN: The Irish and British governments will seek a way to get talks on restoring Northern Ireland’s power-sharing government back on track and neither is contemplating a return of direct rule from London, says Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney.

Talks to end a political stalemate broke down yet again on Wednesday after the leader of the largest unionist party said there was no prospect of a deal and called on Britain to take further financial control of the region.

The British province has been without a devolved executive – a central part of a 1998 peace deal that ended three decades of violence – for over a year since Irish nationalists Sinn Fein withdrew from the compulsory power-sharing government with their arch-rivals, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP).

“The focus now has to be on trying to get these discussions back on track so that the two governments can find a way to ensure that the institutions that are the heartbeat of the Good Friday Agreement can be re-established,” Coveney told Irish broadcaster RTE.

“Certainly there is no appetite to move towards direct rule (from London)… The statement from the DUP was so unwelcome and so disappointing, but that doesn’t mean we give up.”

The two parties, representing mainly Catholic proponents of a united Ireland and Protestant supporters of continued rule by Britain, have failed to meet a number of deadlines, and the latest round of talks fell apart over disagreement on additional rights for Irish-language speakers.

Appearing to agree with Sinn Fein, Coveney said he had thought the parties had reached an accommodation on the issue in recent days that would have legislated for additional rights as part of a broad recognition of cultural and language diversity.

Sources close to the negotiations said some DUP members had issues with the proposed compromise and “robustly raised” their concerns earlier this week.

“Those gaps were closed, that’s why I don’t understand (that) the commentary yesterday was as definitive as it was,” Coveney said.

The absence of an executive has limited Belfast’s say in Britain’s negotiations to leave the EU, which are set to have a bigger impact on Northern Ireland than on any other part of the UK.

Many fear a return to British direct rule would further destabilise a delicate balance between nationalists and unionists who, until last year, had run the province since 2007 under the terms of the 1998 accord that mostly ended decades of sectarian conflict that killed more than 3 600 people. –