Financial talks between Northern Ireland parties and the UK government will resume on Monday amid fading hope a deal to restore the Stormont institutions can be reached before Christmas.
In a statement on Sunday evening the DUP deputy leader Gavin Robinson said “our negotiations with the [UK] government are continuing, and whilst progress has been made there remains some further work to be completed”.
London is pressing to have the Northern assembly and executive restored by Christmas, and while it has set no deadline for the conclusion of the talks the start of the UK parliament’s Christmas recess from Tuesday means the window for a breakthrough is limited.
In a statement issued ahead of the resumption of the talks on Monday, the Northern Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris said the four executive parties “have had time to consider the generous package offered by the government” and he looked forward to “discussing final details with the parties over the coming days”.
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Sinn Féin MP John Finucane on Sunday urged the DUP “not to waste the momentum” built up during last week’s meetings, telling the BBC’s Sunday Politics programme “it is clear the time is now for [the DUP leader] Jeffrey Donaldson … if he prevaricates and allows this to drift then that will be to the detriment of everyone in this society as we face the pain of more and more underfunding. There is an absence of a reason why we can’t have an assembly and executive back up and running straight away, and Jeffrey Donaldson needs to recognise that.”
A £2.5 billion package is on offer from London for a restored assembly and executive, which would include money for public sector pay rises this year, an extension to the deadline for paying back Stormont’s overspend, and a reform of the funding model for Northern Ireland. Sinn Féin, the DUP, Alliance, Ulster Unionists and the SDLP agree it does not go far enough.
A financial agreement will be a key part of any deal to re-establish the power-sharing institutions, which have been suspended for more than 18 months due to a DUP boycott in protest at post-Brexit trading arrangements.
In a weekend email to party members Mr Donaldson said that financially “much more” was required, but even this would “not fix the constitutional and economic issues arising from the [Northern Ireland] protocol”.
He said the party would not be “sidetracked by short-term calendar-led initiatives,” nor would it allow itself to be “distracted by hype, spin and sometimes ill-founded claims as we seek to deliver long-term solutions, measures against the tests in our manifesto, and that work for Northern Ireland and our place within the United Kingdom”.
In a social media post on Sunday night the DUP leader claimed a poster bearing the slogan “Stop DUP sellout” had been erected by members of the anti-agreement Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) party, and said he would “not be intimidated or distracted by such shadowy behaviour”.
The other Northern parties have repeatedly called on the DUP to return to the executive and assembly.
Alliance Assembly member (MLA) Eoin Tennyson told the BBC that “we’ve known the parameters of what any potential landing strip may look like, we’ve known what the key issues are, and we know that with political will this can be landed this week. I think people have been more than patient with the DUP over the last number of years. I don’t think the public will wear another Christmas where they are witnessing this kind of pantomime politics where we’re all traipsing back and forth from Hillsborough Castle for talks.”
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