Disagreements remain after the main political parties in Northern Ireland held talks with secretary of state Chris Heaton-Harris in an effort to restore devolution prior to a key deadline of Friday October 28.
Should an agreement not be reached by then to restore the Stormont executive, a fresh assembly election will be called.
The situation has come about after the Democratic Unionist Party [DUP] blocked a new executive from forming following the last assembly election in May. This move came as an act of protest over the Northern Ireland Protocol.
The Protocol is the element of the UK’s Brexit deal with the EU that avoids a hard border on the island of Ireland by keeping Northern Ireland within the single market and customs union.
This development has meant that while free trade remains with the bloc and neighbouring Republic, checks are being imposed on goods moving between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Unionists have been angered by this, claiming that it undermines Northern Ireland’s place in the UK.
Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein has called for a joint approach to leadership from London and Dublin if an executive cannot be formed before Friday’s deadline. Its vice-president, Michelle O’Neill, has emphasised the need to avoid a return to direct rule from London, which happened the last time that the executive collapsed in January 2017.
O’Neill told Irish network RTE: “We are not returning to the days of direct rule from London. We can't go backwards.
“It is very important the Irish government asserts itself in the face of us being left without any functioning executive or assembly.”
The Republic of Ireland’s taoiseach, Micheál Martin, accused the DUP of an affront to democracy while addressing the Dail (Irish parliament) on Wednesday.
Martin said that by refusing to enter a power-sharing executive, the unionist party was guilty of a “denial of democracy”.
Martin also agreed with O’Neill in that there could be no reverting to “direct rule arrangements of the past” and assured that the Irish government would “fully pursue its consultative role under the Good Friday Agreement.”
However, DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has suggested that a joint authority between London and Dublin would bring “enormous harm” and contravene the Good Friday Agreement.
Sir Jeffrey said: “Joint authority would not be consistent with the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement and I'm not going to be threatened and bullied by Sinn Féin or anyone else on this issue.”
The DUP chief has also suggested that the UK government has already “set its mind” on calling a fresh election which his party “will fight” but warned that his party would continue to refuse to consent to enter a power-sharing administration as long as the Protocol remains unresolved.
“I don't think this moves us any closer to getting the institutions restored; I don't see what this election will do to change things,” Sir Jeffrey explained.
Sir Jeffrey also distanced himself and his party from any blame should a fresh election need to be called, instead saying that the fault would lie with the UK government.
He said: “What the government should be doing is focusing on getting a solution that enables the institutions to be restored.”
The Stormont assembly is due to convene at midday on Thursday, 12 hours before the deadline. This will likely be the last chance to restore the executive before another election needs to be called.
Heaton-Harris has said that he will move to trigger a fresh election immediately once the deadline has passed and will not seek to impose any delay.
