Further meetings between Northern Ireland’s main political parties and Northern Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris will take place on Monday in an attempt to restore Stormont ahead of unprecedented strike action by public sector workers. A breakthrough is not expected, however, as the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) has insisted that its concerns about post-Brexit trading arrangements have not been addressed by the UK government, resulting in the party continuing to boycott the devolved institutions.
Next month marks the two-year anniversary of the DUP collapsing the powersharing executive, leaving the North with no functioning government.
Sources have indicated that Mr Heaton-Harris will toughen his language after last month’s extensive negotiations with parties ended without resolution despite London offering a £3.3 billion funding package, dependent on Stormont’s return, towards tackling the North’s budgetary pressures and public sector pay row.
Further cuts to MLA pay – which has already been reduced by 27 per cent – may also be discussed at Monday’s bilateral meetings at Hillsborough Castle.
The talks come ahead of a Sinn Féin motion on Wednesday to recall the Assembly in what will be the seventh attempt to do so since the Assembly elections in May, 2022. A speaker must be elected to allow business to resume but this has been blocked each time by the DUP.
The recall will take place on the eve of Thursday’s mass walkout by 170,000 workers – 80 per cent of the public sector workforce – in what has been described as the biggest strike in the history of Northern Ireland.
Schools will close, hospital and community care services will be reduced and there will be no public buses or trains running as part of a long-running dispute over Northern workers being paid less than their British counterparts.
The strike date coincides with a legal deadline set for Mr Heaton-Harris to call a fresh Assembly election if no executive is formed. Such a move is highly unlikely amid the deadlock, with the legislation instead expected to be amended to extend the deadline.
In the absence of Stormont, trade unions have repeatedly called on Mr Heaton-Harris to intervene and release the monies to prevent Thursday’s walkouts. However, the Northern Ireland Office has said the Northern Secretary has no authority to negotiate public sector pay, while British prime minister Rishi Sunak last week said that the disputes could be resolved “rapidly” if devolved government was restored.
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