Varadkar to underline ‘pressing’ need for return of powersharing
Alliance Party leader Naomi Long said there was no clarity as to whether the Stormont institutions would be revived this autumn.
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Your support makes all the difference.Irish premier Leo Varadkar is to meet the five main Northern Ireland parties on Wednesday during a visit to Belfast.
Mr Varadkar will meet Sinn Fein leader Michelle O’Neill, DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, Alliance Party leader Naomi Long, UUP leader Doug Beattie and the SDLP MLA Matthew O’Toole.
The Taoiseach is to reiterate to the parties the “pressing” need to get the Stormont institutions in place “without delay”.
The Taoiseach is also scheduled to take part in a number of civic and business engagements with Linfield Football Club, the GAA Ulster Council, the Federation of Small Businesses, and Women in Business.
Alliance Party leader Naomi Long said there was still “no clarity” as to whether or when the Executive and Assembly would be restored.
“I don’t expect that Leo Varadkar will be able to provide us with any solutions or answers in our meetings today,” she said, adding that structural change was needed to end what had become “a routine behaviour” by some of the main parties.
“I am incredibly frustrated, but I think my frustration probably pales into insignificance in terms of the frustration that is felt by the wider public at the fact that we do not have functioning institutions at a time of unprecedented financial crisis facing our public sector,” she told RTE Radio’s Morning Ireland.
The DUP collapsed the Stormont executive last year in protest at post-Brexit trading arrangements in place under the Northern Ireland Protocol.
The Windsor Framework struck by London and Brussels earlier this year sought to reduce the red tape on goods entering Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK while maintaining the dual market access.
However, the DUP has insisted the new accord does not go far enough to address its concerns around sovereignty and the application of EU law in Northern Ireland.
Amid pressure on the DUP to return to powersharing to respond to issues such as long healthcare waiting lists and the cost-of-living crisis, the party has argued the onus is on the UK Government to create the conditions to allow for Stormont’s revival.
Decisions have effectively been left to Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris in the region in the absence of the Executive.
Speaking last week, Mr Heaton-Harris said he is “acutely aware” that the ongoing absence of a Stormont Executive is “exasperating the challenges facing all public services across Northern Ireland”.
When asked about finding a solution to the protocol to the satisfaction of all parties, Mr Heaton-Harris described being “half way there” and said it was taking some time “to make sure that we get it right”.
When asked if finding a legislative fix for the DUP was proving more difficult than anticipated, the Secretary of State said: “Identifying exactly what the ask was was very difficult.”