Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams yesterday accused the Rev Ian Paisley's DUP of "posturing" over claims a satisfactory financial package was a precondition to devolution.
Speaking at the "unveiling" of the party's 37 candidates for the Northern Ireland Assembly, Mr Adams said his party was the first to argue for a peace dividend. "We are moving out of a conflict situation and infrastructures are underfunded. Both governments need to pick up the tab for that," he said.
"But it is not a precondition. It is a necessary part of the process of developing what was undernourished and undermined. I think what you are getting from the DUP is a bit of posturing once more," he added.
The DUP's election manifesto, launched earlier in the day, stated a financial package was a necessary step before devolution could take place. The party also made a comment about "putting manners on republicans", a reference to the Sinn Féin remark about the PSNI.
Mr Adams said he believed working with the DUP was possible. "They are putting up various positions and there are going to be negotiations, because there will have to be both a government put together and a programme of government," he said.
"But we can do it easily or we can do it in a difficult way, and we want to do it the easy way, which is to sit down and share with other parties in government and go about the business we were elected to do."
Mr Adams, standing in West Belfast, refused to be drawn on what portfolios Sinn Féin would attempt to gain in a Stormont executive. In the most recent power-sharing executive, the party held two ministerial posts, with Martin McGuinness as education minister and Bairbre de Brún as health minister. Mr Adams said the party will "look at" those portfolios again, adding: "But we have not had one vote cast, so it is premature to discuss what departments we would go for."
When asked about the issue of Sinn Féin Fermanagh-South Tyrone candidate Michelle Gildernew's comment on BBC Radio Ulster's Talkback that she "personally wouldn't" contact the police if she saw disaffected Provisionals with guns, Mr Adams refused to comment, simply stating it was a "hypothetical" question.