Adams accuses Robinson of ‘making a show of himself’

The Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams has accused Peter Robinson of "making a show of himself" after the DUP leader said he will use procedural manoeuvres to stop Stormont posts going to Sinn Féin or the SDLP.

Mr Robinson stepped aside and three other DUP ministers and a junior minister resigned from their positions on Thursday amid the deepening crisis over an alleged IRA connection with the killing of Kevin McGuigan in Belfast.

The rules dictate that vacant positions can be offered to other Executive parties. It is understood that the DUP will nominate its own party representatives for vacant ministries each week, who will then immediately resign.

The tactic will prevent nationalists from filling the roles.

Speaking in Dublin today Mr Adams said people in the North were exasperated by what he described as a “new version of the Hokey Cokey”.

“There is a lot of posturing...there is a different persona when you are meeting some of these folks in private because they know that these matters can be sorted out, they know that it’s an electoral competition between the DUP and the UUP, they know this is a contrived difficulty,” he said.

Mr Adams also accused the Taoiseach Enda Kenny and the British prime minister David Cameron of “clumsy interventions” into the current political crisis in the North.

He said, despite the efforts being made by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Charlie Flanagan, the situation in the North was “clearly is not a priority for the British prime minister or for an Taoiseach”.

“The Taoiseach just can’t wander about the place... and then, when there is a crisis, issue statements. His job as Taoiseach is to represent the people of this State and, on behalf of all the people of the island, to uphold the Good Friday and other agreements and to make sure that David Cameron does the same,” he said.

He said what was needed was not “platitudes or soundbites” but for the Taoiseach to persuade the British prime minister of his obligations as coequal guarantor of the Peace Process.

He said Mr Kenny also needed to “consistently impress” upon Mr Cameron the “social and economic social changes require a workable budget”.

“What is required here is for the Taoiseach to make the North a priority” he said.