SDLP Foyle MLA Sinead McLaughlin
She was speaking after contributing in the Assembly earlier today.
Said the Foyle MLA: “Today, the SDLP recalled the Assembly so that MLAs from across the parties could vote to nominate a Speaker and debate our response to the cost-of-living crisis.
“We were ready to roll up our sleeves and get on with the jobs that people sent us to Stormont to do.
“Unfortunately, the DUP is still refusing to get back round the table, despite the disastrous crisis facing workers and families across the North.
“The DUP previously said that they would take a ‘graduated’ response to the current Assembly impasse, but now that the Protocol Bill has unfortunately passed its stages in the House of Commons, they are still refusing to go back to work.
“There is no longer any excuse for the DUP to frustrate power-sharing.
“If they do not return to work, then more people will continue to suffer needlessly, from pensioners who will be sitting in freezing houses this winter, parents who can’t afford school uniforms and people in Derry who suffered from the recent floods but whose government is not even able to meet in order to discuss ways of helping people who were so badly affected.
“Instead of exploring every possible avenue for supporting hard-pressed families, the DUP is abandoning people in their hour of need, leaving their fate to the whims of a Tory Prime Minister.
“They should be ashamed of themselves.”
