Taoiseach due in Belfast for talks with main Stormont parties

The Taoiseach is due in Belfast on Thursday for talks with the main Stormont parties aimed at resolving the political crisis in the North. Leo Varadkar is also expected to meet business leaders, and will discuss the importance of making progress on an EU-UK agreement on the Northern Ireland protocol and the restoration of the Northern Ireland executive.

The Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin will also meet Northern Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris in Hillsborough. He will then go to Armagh for a number of engagements, including a visit to the Secretariat of the North-South Ministerial Council and the launch of a new Shared Island Civic Society Fund, and will meet victims and survivors of the Troubles.

The Government said the two visits on the same day were a “clear sign” of its commitment to “resolving the difficulties around the protocol, and helping ensure that the institutions of the Good Friday [Belfast] Agreement can once again operate effectively across all three strands”.

The leader of the UK Labour Party, Keir Starmer, will also hold separate meetings with the Northern parties at Stormont today.

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Speaking in Dublin last night, the Taoiseach said there has been “good engagement” between the European Commission and United Kingdom on the Northern Ireland protocol with progress made.

Mr Varadkar spoke to commission president Ursula Von Der Leyen last night and was updated on the ongoing discussions.

Speaking after the call, Mr Varadkar said that “the teams are making a certain degree of progress. They are very keen to have the time and space to continue their work and have asked that there would be confidentiality around that, so that’s obviously something we are going to observe.”

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Today’s engagements come the day after a round-table meeting organised by the Northern Secretary and UK foreign secretary James Cleverly was overshadowed by controversy over the presence of Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald.

The meeting went ahead without any nationalist representatives after Sinn Féin said the UK government had “excluded” Ms McDonald from the discussion on Wednesday. A Sinn Féin source said Ms McDonald, who is a TD for Dublin Central, was told she could not attend as she was elected in another jurisdiction.

The SDLP subsequently pulled out, saying it would not take part in a process that excluded the leader of Sinn Féin.

Ms McDonald told reporters it was “bizarre and unprecedented” that the UK government “chose to seek to exclude the leader of Sinn Féin from a leaders’ meeting”, adding that it was a “terrible shame” an opportunity to make progress had been missed.

The Northern Ireland Office said Ms McDonald was “not excluded”, and the meeting had been “for Northern Ireland politicians to talk through issues around the Northern Ireland protocol with SOSNI [the Northern Secretary] and the UK foreign secretary. “The leader of Sinn Féin in the Assembly [the party’s vice-president, Michelle O’Neill] was invited and remains invited. Her attendance is a matter for Sinn Féin.”

Unionist politicians suggested it was due to a protocol issue as Mr Cleverly has not yet met his Irish counterpart Mr Martin, and therefore could not meet Ms McDonald, who is also leader of the Opposition in the Dáil, until he had done so.

A spokesman from the Department for Foreign Affairs said the Government was not consulted and “would not have had any difficulties with such a meeting going ahead”.

Addressing reporters outside Belfast, Mr Cleverly gave no indication a deal on the protocol – or the restoration of the Assembly – was imminent. Asked if it could be solved by the 25th anniversary of the Belfast Agreement in April, Mr Cleverly said “we want to do it as quickly as we can but we’re not setting any artificial deadlines but of course we are also working intensively to get a resolution”.