The latest round of political talks aimed at restoring Stormont ahead of unprecedented strike action by public sector workers in Northern Ireland has ended in deadlock.
Emerging from the gates of Hillsborough Castle on Monday, Sinn Féin deputy leader Michelle O’Neill was downbeat, and said there was no “chink of light” following her party’s meeting with Northern Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris. “That being said we still think that there is an opportunity for the DUP to step up to the plate, there is an opportunity for them to end their (Stormont) boycott, and there is an opportunity for the DUP to join the rest of us and form an executive.”
Representatives from the North’s five main political parties held separate 45-minute meetings with Mr Heaton-Harris throughout the day, with all filing past dozens of trade union protesters representing teachers. A busload of parents whose autistic children attend special schools were also protested at the gates and loudly heckled Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Jeffrey Donaldson and his entourage as they drove through the castle gates, chanting “you’re paid, pay them”.
Next month marks the two-year anniversary of the DUP collapsing the powersharing executive over its concerns about post-Brexit trading arrangements, leaving the North with no functioning government. On Thursday more than 170,000 public sector workers – 80 per cent of its workforce – including nurses, teaching assistants and bus and train drivers will stage a mass workout in a dispute over pay.
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The latest Hillsborough talks took place a month after negotiations between the parties and Northern Secretary ended without resolution despite the UK government offering a £3.3 billion funding package, dependent on Stormont’s return, towards tackling Northern Ireland’s budgetary pressures and public sector pay row. The DUP insisted that separate talks with London on post-Brexit trading were ongoing, and that it could not re-enter the devolved institutions until issues were resolved. The UK government said the talks had “effectively concluded”.
Asked on Monday what had changed four weeks on, Mr Donaldson told reporters he was “glad to report” that “further progress” had been made post-Christmas on the “outstanding issues that relate to Northern Ireland’s place within the United Kingdom and its internal market,”
The DUP leader spoke to trade union protesters following his meeting with Mr Heaton-Harris, and said that he had pressed him to release public sector funds (around £580 million of the £3.3 billion package) in order to end the pay row and avert Thursday’s strike. “The secretary of state and the treasury have indicated that there is funding available and we’re saying they should now bring that forward and make those public sector pay awards,” he said.
Asked by media what will happen if the UK fails to intervene amid threats of civil disobedience by one trade union, Mr Donaldson said: “If the government doesn’t intervene then it looks as if the strike action will go ahead; that is not an outcome I want. I will continue working and I’m going to Westminster later today, and I will engage with ministers specifically on this issue.”
He added that he was “working every day” on the political impasse. “I want to see the political institutions restored, I’ve made that absolutely clear, but it has to be on a stable and sustainable basis.”
But the Northern Secretary told reporters on Monday that public sector pay was a “devolved matter” and the UK government would not step in to settle the dispute. He added that London had done “everything we can” in talks with the DUP over post-Brexit trading, and that it was “time for decisions to be made”.
“It is time for the talking and debate to finish. It is time for Stormont to get back to work,” he said.
If Stormont is not restored by this Thursday Mr Heaton-Harris will be legally obliged to call a fresh election. “Various decisions” will have to be made, he said, adding that he would set out his next steps in due course.
Tánaiste Micheál Martin also appealed for the restoration of the devolved institutions ahead of an assembly recall by Sinn Féin on Wednesday, the seventh attempt to do since May 2022 but which has been blocked each time by the DUP. “I’m always hopeful of a breakthrough. I think it’s come very close. And I would hope that we would see the assembly restored very quickly,” Mr Martin said on Monday.
However, Ulster Unionist Party leader Doug Beattie was pessimistic about a return to powersharing following his party’s meeting with Mr Heaton-Harris, and said there was “absolutely no movement whatsoever and nothing has changed”.
Alliance Party leader Naomi Long urged the DUP to return but said she realised that her pleas may fall on “deaf ears”. She also warned that patience with Northern Ireland in London was “running out”.
SDLP leader Colum Eastwood called on the UK government to release funding to make a pay award to public sector workers and said it was “scandalous we’re still at this point”, adding that people were in a “twilight zone waiting for the DUP to make a decision”.
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