Northern Ireland’s Legislative Assembly will meet on Monday, after a petition by Sinn Féin secured enough signatures for MLAs to be recalled to Stormont to debate the “urgent appointment of ministers”.
Since the assembly elections earlier in May saw Sinn Féin emerge as the country’s largest party for the first time, the Democratic Unionist Party [DUP] has refused to nominate ministers to the power-sharing government as an act of protest against the Northern Ireland Protocol.
However, the DUP’s move has blocked the establishment of a new Legislative Assembly, meaning the devolved government in Northern Ireland cannot function. The party has insisted it will not support the appointment of ministers until “action” to deal with the Protocol is taken.
The Protocol, part of the UK’s Brexit deal with the European Union, avoids a hard border on the island of Ireland but requires checks to be carried out on some goods entering Northern Ireland from Great Britain.
Unionists argue that this development creates a trade border in the Irish Sea and undermines Northern Ireland’s place in the UK and its internal market.
However, Sinn Féin’s recall petition first tabled on Wednesday secured the 30 signatures it required to pass and was supported by the Alliance party and Social Democratic and Labour Party [SDLP].
The successful petition will see MLAs meet on Monday to debate the appointment of a speaker, first minister and deputy first minister.
The election of a speaker must be the first order of business after an assembly election at Stormont, before anything else can be addressed in its chambers.
Local politicians have raised concerns that without a functioning government, the ongoing cost-of-living crisis cannot be addressed in Northern Ireland. It is hoped that by debating the nomination of ministers, it could pave the way for the government to be restored.
Over in Westminster, Thursday saw chancellor Rishi Sunak announce a new package of measures to deal with the cost-of-living crisis, which would see £1,000 allocated to Northern Ireland’s most vulnerable households, including a one-off cost-of-living payment.
In the background, a US delegation has been in the Northern Irish capital of Belfast to meet with party leaders, in talks hosted by Northern Ireland secretary Brandon Lewis on Wednesday.
After the DUP had initially hit out at the delegation’s leader Richard Neal for suggesting that the dispute over the Protocol had been “manufactured”, DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said that talks on Thursday had made clear to him that the visiting delegation now had a “greater understanding of unionists concerns” over the Protocol.
Sir Jeffrey said: “If their [the American delegation’s] public response echoes what they said to us in the meeting, then some progress will have been made.”
However, the DUP leader dismissed Monday’s recall as a stunt by Sinn Féin and vowed that unionists would continue to stand their ground on the Protocol.
He added: “If they [Sinn Féin] think that pulling a stunt like this next Monday is going to change things, then they really don't understand unionism and our determination to stand our ground until we get the decisive action that is required to move us all forward.”
But Sinn Féin’s vice-president Michelle O’Neill, who is in line to be Northern Ireland’s next first minister following her party's success at the polls, stressed that attempting to elect a speaker and other ministers to allow the government to be restored was vital.
She said: “They [the Northern Irish public] expect us to be putting money into people’s pockets but the DUP are blocking all that. It's important we attempt to elect a speaker.”
Elsewhere, the director general of the Confederation of British Industry [CBI] Tony Danker, has said that businesses in Northern Ireland want the Protocol to be able to work practically.
Danker said: “If you're a manufacturer [in Northern Ireland] you have access to dual markets. That is a very big deal in the context of the overall Brexit fall out.”
Image taken from Wikimedia Commons
