A senior DUP politician has said a government will not be formed in Northern Ireland if Sinn Féin fails to move from its position on Arlene Foster's nomination for first minister.
Sinn Féin has repeatedly said it will not support the DUP nominating its leader as first minister while the public inquiry into the botched Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) “cash for ash” scheme takes place.
On Thursday, Jeffrey Donaldson told BBC Radio Ulster that post-election talks between the two biggest parties were ongoing in the hope that "Sinn Féin will relent" on this if agreement is reached on other matters.
Following the results of the snap March 2nd Assembly election, the Stormont parties and the Irish and British governments are in the second week of talks aimed at forming a government by a March 27th deadline .
Government in the North collapsed in January after Ms Foster refused Sinn Féin’s demand to step aside without prejudice over questions around her role as enterprise minister responsible for the RHI scheme.
Other issues
Yesterday Mr Donaldson said it was the DUP’s position that Ms Foster would not stand aside. He said the point of the current negotiations were “in the hope that if we can get a broad measure of agreement on all of the other issues that Sinn Féin will relent on this demand, which we believe is an unreasonable demand”.
If Sinn Féin does not back down “well then we are not going to get a government then, and we will then have presumably either another election or direct rule”.
“Frankly, Northern Ireland does not need either of those things” and his belief was Sinn Féin could change its position on Ms Foster.
“I have heard Sinn Féin say things like that before. They said there will be no decommissioning, not a bullet, not an ounce, and in the end we got progress. I am a believer in what is possible. You don’t accept preconditions, you sit down and hammer it out.”
Negotiations
The issue around Ms Foster’s role in an executive has not formed part of the post-election negotiations so far.
Mr Donaldson noted that Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams had said the differences between parties on this matter could be discussed after an agreement was reached. "I am prepared to take Sinn Féin up on that and prepared to work as hard as we can to get agreement on the other issues, and then we will come to that issue."
A Sinn Féin spokesman said it would not support Ms Foster’s nomination until the RHI inquiry reports. “Our focus is on reaching agreement on the restoration of the political institutions. But it cannot be on the same basis as before.”
