Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney has played down expectations of a breakthrough in talks between the EU and UK on the Northern Ireland protocol when the two sides meet next Monday.
Speaking to reporters in Belfast on Thursday ahead of meetings with Northern Irish political leaders, he said it was "important not to be unrealistic" in terms of expectations ahead of the meeting of the EU-UK joint committee on the implementation of the protocol.
Mr Coveney said the “likely scenario” was that there would probably be a joint statement outlining the issues that they want to try to address together. He said this should be used “a staging point for progress as opposed to a reminder of how far apart the two sides continue to be”.
The Minister is expected to discuss the post-Brexit protocol and the North's political crisis when he meets the leaders of Sinn Féin, the SDLP, Alliance and the Ulster Unionist Party. He will also take part in meetings with civic representatives in Belfast and Armagh.
Mr Coveney will not meet the DUP, though it is understood this is down to logistical issues as party leader Jeffrey Donaldson is in Cameroon, where he is the UK's trade envoy. The Minister said been in contact with Mr Donaldson over the last few days and that they would meet soon.
The visit to the North is Mr Coveney's first since the DUP's Paul Givan resigned as first minister earlier this month, which meant Sinn Féin deputy first minister Michelle O'Neill also ceased to hold office and the power-sharing Executive collapsed.
The Assembly continues to sit and other ministers remain in their posts but are unable to take new or significant decisions.
Bystander
Mr Coveney rejected a suggestion that the Government in Dublin was a “bystander” to the crisis, saying he was in Belfast to meet “all the parties that are available” to meet.
“We are keenly involved in actually trying to find compromise positions and trying to find a way of reassuring people that the Northern Ireland protocol can be implemented in a way that everybody can accept,” he said, adding that Dublin was “watching closely in terms of the instability in terms of Northern Ireland politics” ahead of the Assembly elections in May.
He said what was most important was that “senior politicians need to be talking to each other, understanding each other’s positions and trying to be as accommodating as we can be and that’s what today is about”.
Asked if he was concerned about the longer-term implications of the current crisis for the Stormont institutions and the sustainability of power-sharing, Mr Coveney said "on the broader issues, I think everybody should be concerned.
“We’ve had a period of tension and polarisation, much of that linked to Brexit and the Northern Ireland protocol issues, I accept that.
“But we move into an election cycle now, and I think all of us have to try and think ahead in terms of the consequences of that election, we have to respect democracy and what people choose in terms of the parties and the makeup of a future Assembly.”
Sufficient trust
He said there was a need to ensure that “sufficient trust” was rebuilt so the Dublin and London governments “can work together with parties in Northern Ireland to maintain stability and the institutions that are so valuable to people’s well being”.
He quoted an Irish News/University of Liverpool opinion poll earlier this week which he said was a reminder "that not everybody in the streets of Northern Ireland are talking about the protocol" in the context of the upcoming elections.
“In fact, less than 7 per cent of people polled in Northern Ireland have said the protocol is the first issue for them in terms of how they vote,” he said.
“So I think we need to put this into perspective. The protocol and the issues around it are important, and politicians like me and others have to find solutions and landing zones that are based on compromise and understanding each other’s perspectives, but also around a realistic and honest assessment of what Brexit means and the choices that flow from that.”
The EU vice president Maros Sefcovic also held virtual talks with the leaders of the North's main political parties on Thursday.
In a statement on Thursday following his meeting with Mr Sefcovic, the DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson said the EU could “no longer keep up the pretence that the protocol was about protecting peace” and again emphasised that the Irish Sea border “does not have the support of a single unionist elected representative.”
He warned unionism was “rapidly losing faith that a negotiated solution is possible.”
The UUP leader Doug Beattie also struck a cautious note, and said a solution to the negotiations between the EU and UK was "as far away now as we were last year."
Ms O’Neill said the majority of the people of Northern Ireland did not support the triggering of Article 16 of the protocol and her engagements with Mr Coveney and Mr Sefcovic were “very timely” in advance of next week’s joint committee meeting.
“We hope that there are solutions to be found, if that’s the case remains to be seen,” she said.
The SDLP and Alliance leaders expressed fears there was unlikely to be a swift resolution to the political crisis even after the Assembly election on May 5th.
Answering questions from reporters after his meeting with Mr Coveney, the SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said the "reality" was that Mr Donaldson will not appoint a deputy first minister.
“The only way there’ll be an executive after an election is if the DUP win, that’s the most undemocratic thing I’ve ever heard, particularly because it doesn’t matter who the first minister is.”
The Alliance party leader Naomi Long said "the prospects for forming an Executive post the election, if the DUP continue to redraw their red lines in the way they have been recently, is fairly bleak."
Additional reporting - PA.
