The DUP “can’t hold everybody else to ransom” and there is “no need whatsoever” for a lengthy period of negotiations following the North’s Assembly elections, Sinn Féin’s deputy leader says.
In an interview with The Irish Times, Michelle O'Neill says it is "just not fathomable" that the DUP will not go back into government in Northern Ireland and there should not be a "long, drawn-out process; this should be done very quickly".
“We should be back in, in government, taking decisions, impacting on people’s lives positively, immediately.
“There’s no need to draw this out for the potential 26-week period,” says the former deputy first minister.
"The DUP have nowhere else to go, they will have to come back into the Executive because there isn't any other show in town"
She says Sinn Féin is ready to get back to work “on day one” and it is “for all the parties that want to be there [in the Northern Executive] to work together.
“The DUP have nowhere else to go, they will have to come back into the Executive because there isn’t any other show in town.”
The DUP's Paul Givan resigned as first minister earlier this year – which under Stormont's rules also removed O'Neill from her position as deputy first minister – as part of his party's campaign against the Northern Ireland protocol.
DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson has said his party will not return to the Executive unless the issues around the protocol are resolved to the party's satisfaction and has refused to confirm whether his party will take up the deputy first minister role alongside a Sinn Féin first minister.
Highly symbolic
According to recent polls, Sinn Féin is expected to return the greatest number of Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) in the election on May 5th, which would bring with it the position of first minister.
This would be highly symbolic – it would be the first time a nationalist has held the position – but has no practical significance, as under Stormont’s power-sharing rules the roles of first and deputy first ministers are a joint office and one cannot be in post without the other.
If an Executive cannot be formed after the election, the initial period of negotiations could last up to six months. Former ministers would remain in post but the Assembly could not sit and without a first or deputy first minister no significant or controversial decisions could be taken.
O’Neill plays down the significance of Sinn Féin potentially taking the first minister position, saying that it and the deputy first minister role “doesn’t belong to anybody, it doesn’t belong to any one community over another ... I’m more fixated around the fact that I want to lead change”.
However, she also says the DUP has “painted two red lines: one on the protocol and two that they may have issues with going into government if [Sinn Féin is] returned as the largest party” and “neither are acceptable”.
Election manifesto
O’Neill was speaking after the launch of her party’s election manifesto on Monday. It includes commitments to prioritise health in the next Executive; to allocate additional funds to deal with the cost of living, including £230 to every household in Northern Ireland; and to plan for a united Ireland, “one which belongs to us all, including our unionist neighbours”.
It lists among its priorities “securing a date from the Irish and British governments for the referenda on unity provided for in the Good Friday Agreement”.
Does this mean a Border poll by 2032? "I'm saying it's within this decade, this is a decade of opportunity"
Asked when this date might be, O’Neill says this is a “decade of opportunity, the decade to change things, the decade to right a wrong”.
Does this mean a Border poll by 2032? “I’m saying it’s within this decade, this is a decade of opportunity. I’m less fixated on a date and more fixated on, what does it look like, because I think that’s what people need.
“I think you’ll only convince people of the merits of change when you tell them what it will look like, so that’s why we need a Citizens’ Assembly to start planning.”
She says she does not consider the question around unity as one of “unionists or nationalists. I look at it as people, and people deserve better … There’s an opportunity for us now to plan something that actually we all have a stake in, we all have ownership in, we all collectively cherish.
“I also understand that means that we, as nationalist people, should always reach out the arm of friendship, we should push our boundaries, we should try to speak to people who are not yet convinced,” she says.
