The deadline for calling a fresh Assembly election is to be extended and MLAs’ pay to be cut while the political limbo in Northern Ireland continues, the Northern Ireland Secretary has announced.
Chris Heaton-Harris said on Wednesday that the current deadline for restoring the Assembly – which was passed on October 28th without resolution – is to be extended for up to 12 weeks, until January 19th.
This could mean a fresh Assembly election in mid-April, when Northern Ireland will also mark the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Belfast Agreement.
The Sinn Féin vice president and the North’s first minister designate, Michelle O’Neill, stressed the need for practical progress between now and the new deadline, saying there had been some “very positive statements” regarding the Northern Ireland protocol but there was as yet “no substance” in terms of finding a solution to the current impasse.
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“My question to [the UK prime minister] Rishi Sunak is around what he is going to do in the time ahead to actually find an agreed way forward for the protocol.
“Put it into action, propel those talks, have it on a political level, not a technical level, get down to business and actually find an agreed way forward,” she said.
“What we now have are new deadlines, multiple deadlines in which he may or many not call an election.
“This is not a good enough space for people to be in and I think the fundamental question today has to be around, what’s next?”
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Simon Coveney, welcomed the decision by Mr Heaton-Harris to extend the deadline, saying it “provides further space for early substantive progress in discussions between the EU and the UK on the issues of most concern to people and businesses in NI.
“I urge the UK authorities to make use of this renewed opportunity to engage positively, and with real urgency, in the knowledge that the European Commission has listened carefully to the concerns of people across Northern Ireland, including and especially Unionists.”
Responding to the announcement by Mr Heaton-Harris in the House of Commons on Wednesday, the DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson reiterated his party’s position that “if the Secretary of State wants to restore Stormont, then he must ensure the [UK] government replaces the protocol with arrangements that unionists can support.
“Whilst people speak about their desire to protect the Belfast Agreement, they fail to recognise the core element of the Agreement was consensus, yet every unionist MLA and MP opposes the protocol.
“Progress is only made in Northern Ireland when there is a foundation based on the consent of unionists and nationalists,” he said.
In a statement to the House of Commons on Wednesday, Mr Heaton-Harris said “the one thing that everyone agrees on is that we must try and find a way through this current impasse,” he said.
“When I have a legal duty to call an election that few want and everyone tells me will change nothing.
“Thus I will be introducing legislation to provide a short, straightforward extension to the period of Executive formation, extending the current period by six weeks, to December 8, with potential for a further six-week extension [to] 19 January if necessary.”
The aim, he said, was to “create the time and space needed for talks between the UK and EU to develop and for the Northern Ireland parties to work together to restore the devolved institutions as soon as possible.”
He said people across Northern Ireland were “frustrated that MLAs continue to draw a full salary whilst not performing all of the duties they were elected to do” and here would therefore “be asking for the House’s support to enable me to reduce MLAs’ salaries appropriately.
The Northern Secretary also said he intends to legislate to give additional powers to Northern Ireland’s civil service to enable it to address budgetary issues and make a number of important public appointments.
Northern Ireland has been without a functioning Assembly or Executive since the last election in May, when the DUP refused to re-enter the power-sharing institutions until its demands regarding the Northern Ireland protocol – which is opposes – are met.
Discussions between the EU and UK on the protocol are continuing, and earlier on Wednesday Mr Heaton-Harris stressed his desire for a negotiated outcome.
The legal deadline to restore Stormont passed without resolution at the end of October, but the Northern Secretary did not call an election despite repeated assurances that he would do so.
He had previously been criticised for announcing developments in the media before discussing with Northern political parties, but on Wednesday spoke to them first to inform them of his plans before his address to the Commons.
Responding to Mr Heaton-Harris’s announcement, the SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said the focus must now be on restoring the Assembly and Executive.
“With the Secretary of State having pushed the idea of an election and the prospect of a deal between the British government and the EU on the protocol getting closer every day, the DUP has no excuse for continuing their boycott of the Stormont institutions,” he said.
The Alliance leader Naomi Long also appealed to the DUP to “end their boycott and stop the deadlock they have caused” and said the decision to delay the election did not alter the need for a reform of the North’s political institutions.
“As long as any one party can take the institutions hostage, they will,” she said. “Therefore we need reform of the Assembly and Executive to stop that happening, or else we could easily be back in this same situation again in a matter of months.”
In his statement on Wednesday, Mr Heaton-Harris addressed “those who have called for ‘joint authority’ of Northern Ireland in recent days” and said “this won’t be considered.
“The UK Government is absolutely clear that the consent principle governs the constitutional position of Northern Ireland, under which Northern Ireland is an integral part of the United Kingdom.
“We will not support any arrangements that are inconsistent with that principle,” he said, adding that the UK government remained “fully committed to the long established three stranded approach to Northern Ireland affairs.”
Additional reporting –PA.
