The North’s Secretary of State tells MPs at Westminster that a deal is still achieveable
THE North’s Secretary of State James Brokenshire has said Westminster will legislate to give Stormont departments authority over spending decisions.
But he told MPs that “we have not reached that critical point yet”.
Mr Brokenshire told the Commons legislation to enable a new executive at Stormont could come “as early as this week”, adding “time is short”.
Sinn Féin said it was unlikely there will be a deal in the short term as the marching season looms large.
But the DUP said “onus” was on Sinn Féin.
SDLP leader and Foyle MLA Colum Eastwood said the continued deadlock was “exasperating” as deadline after deadline was continually by Sinn Fein and the DUP.
The major stumbling block is Sinn Fein’s request for a ‘stand alone’ Irish Language Act.
The North of Ireland has been without a functioning devolved government since January, when the coalition led by the DUP and Sinn Féin collapsed over a green energy scandal.
Mr Brokenshire updated MPs about what the next steps are in Stormont’s power-sharing talks after parties missed last Thursday’s statutory deadline to strike a deal.
He said he would not call an assembly election immediately, but he will keep his options under review.
“I continue to believe that a deal remains achievable. And if agreement is reached, I will bring forward legislation to enable an executive to be formed, possibly as early as this week,” he said.
The government must either allow talks to continue, call a new Northern Ireland election or introduce some form of direct rule.
However, Mr Brokenshire did not indicate what the government will do if the power-sharing talks fail to produce a deal.
Earlier, Conor Murphy of Sinn Féin said a likely pause in talks over the summer would not help.
“We said over the weekend we don’t see any urgency in the DUP approach to this and we don’t think it’s likely that there will be a deal in the short term because there is that lack of urgency.”
He added: “Now we find ourselves up against the 12th July, the atmosphere becomes so hostile that the DUP are even less likely to move on some of these issues,” he added.
DUP leader Arlene Foster said she did not have a preference on what Mr Brokenshire will decide but that the “onus was on Sinn Féin”.
“Either they can lead us into another election or they can lead us inexorably towards direct rule, and they know the consequences of that.”
She also said she was “amazed to hear them (Sinn Féin) say that the DUP did not want to have rights for Irish language speakers”.
“I have a great deal of respect for those people who love the Irish language, who want to use it everyday in their lives.”
She added that Sinn Féin had allowed it to become a “political way of dealing with the matter instead of looking at the real issues that are there for those Irish language speakers”.
SDLP leader Colum Eastwood expressed frustration at the lack of progress in the talks.
“It is utterly exasperating that after months of talks, the DUP and Sinn Féin continue to lock our politics into a complete stalemate. Kicking the can further down the road, will rightly be met with public anger and disappointment,” he said.
Power-sharing talks betwee the DUP and Sinn Féin, broke up on Saturday with no deal.
The legal deadline for the talks was last Thursday.
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