Talks sponsored by the Irish and British governments aimed at restoring the Northern assembly and executive will get under way in Belfast on Tuesday.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney will meet the British Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Karen Bradley at 10am on Tuesday morning and talks with the parties will follow.
On Wednesday, ministers from both governments will meet in London in a session of the British Irish Intergovernmental Conference, while negotiations with the Northern parties will continue in Belfast.
Dublin and London hope the deadlock which has seen the North without political leadership for more than two years can be resolved in a short, intensive period of talks over the next three weeks.
Stormont collapsed in January 2017 when the late Martin McGuinness of Sinn Féin resigned as deputy first minister, citing concerns over a scheme to subsidise renewal energy.
Concerns
However, Sinn Féin’s concerns about the Northern executive were broader than the renewable energy controversy and the party has said it will not participate in a reformed executive unless there was a plan to legalise same-sex marriage in the North, reform its abortion laws and introduce an Irish language Act that would recognise the rights of Irish speakers.
The party wants the British government to legislate for these demands if the DUP refuses to agree to introduce them through a new assembly and executive – an outcome considered unlikely by many as prime minister Theresa May’s government depends on DUP votes for its survival at Westminster.
Last year, a deal to relaunch the powersharing institutions was abandoned when DUP leader Arlene Foster faced a party revolt on meeting the Sinn Féin demands.
Compromise
Last week, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar appealed for both sides to compromise in the talks in order to revive the Stormont institutions, urging Sinn Féin and the DUP to be “generous” and make concessions to achieve a breakthrough that would enable the powersharing institutions be reconstituted.
Both of the big two parties saw little change in their electoral strength in local election results in the North last Friday, suggesting that although impatience with politicians is said to be widespread, voters are not yet punishing Sinn Féin and the DUP.
