There were hopes a change of leadership in Sinn Féin would have given some fresh impetus to the talks to restore Institutions in the North.
It’s now been 13 months since the late Martin McGuinness resigned and Sinn Féin walked away from the Executive.
The issue then was the Renewable Heating Incentive scandal that DUP leader Arlene Foster had introduced when she was environment minister.
It might have been the match that lit the conflagration, but we hear precious little about it now. It’s all about the Irish language act.
There have been ground-swell changes since. A disastrous election for the Tories has meant the DUP has assumed huge leverage in Westminster. Sinn Féin has a brand new leadership.
As we report in today's lead story, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and British prime minister Theresa May spoke last night in an effort to revive the moribund process.
Sinn Féin leader Mary McDonald and party deputy leader Michelle O’Neill also met Varadkar and Tánaiste Simon Coveney yesterday.
The leaders have not exactly gone all-out to administer CPR. The statement issued on behalf of May is the very definition of insipid.
“The Prime Minister said she believed there was scope for agreement and reiterated the UK Government’s priority was still to get devolution up and running again in Northern Ireland.”
The DUP is now looking for a restoration of direct rule, which would be a complete setback.
Sinn Féin wants the Irish Government to intervene by convening a meeting of the intergovernmental conference provided for in the Good Friday Agreement. That gives the Irish Government a qualitative role and, therefore, would be fiercely resisted by unionism.
Instead, the tack is to get the parties back talking. At this moment there is little chance of that. “Wishful thinking” is how one Sinn Féin source described it.
There is a phrase that has been associated with such talks over the years. It goes: “Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed.” It has become banal and meaningless over the years.
If you look at any of the big agreements - the Belfast Agreement and St Andrew’s - you will see there were issues that had no possibility of agreement, such as the Irish language, cultural rights, flags and emblems. Those issues were essentially ‘parked’ - essentially for future negotiation.
As we have been finding out over the past painful 13 months of stalemate - and to quote Gerry Adams, “they haven’t gone away”.
Abortion deb ate moves to legislation
Minister for Health Simon Harris will today present the draft legislation to hold the referendum on abortion in May.
This legislation will be relatively straightforward, a straight proposition to repeal the Eighth Amendment and allow the Oireachtas to provide for termination in accordance with law.
A year ago even this move would have been highly contentious with the middle ground.
The debate has moved on now, and there are few who doubt that citizens who wish to keep the status quo, in other words the Eighth Amendment, are in a minority.
The grounds of the debate have shifted to the actual legislation itself. The Oireachtas Committee has recommended abortion be available on request at up to 12 weeks. It’s a big step, and as weekend opinion polls have shown there is no groundswell of opinion.
Minister for Employment and Social Affairs Regina Doherty was probably correct over the weekend when she said that, as things stand, the referendum could be lost.
She was reportedly upbraided for the comments on the basis they were unhelpful, but it was “straight-talking” and acknowledging the evidence of weekend opinion polls.
Moreover, any suggestion the Dáil and Seanad could devise an alternative abortion regime to that proposed by the Oireachtas committee on the issue is “foolish”, the leader of the Labour Party, Brendan Howlin, has said.
So, in that context, what emerges later today will not be controversial in itself. In March, there will be a policy paper that will outline the proposed legislation allowing termination on request up to 12 weeks, and later in the cases of fatal foetal abnormalities and when there is a serious risk to the mother’s health or mental health.
