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SINN FÉIN PRESIDENT Mary Lou McDonald has urged the DUP to commit to “real powersharing” with her party at Stormont.
McDonald claimed that a DUP “failure to accept rights and equality” was a contributory factor in the recent “political storm” that has hit unionism.
After former first minister and DUP leader Arlene Foster was ousted by her party and replaced by Edwin Poots, Sinn Féin refused initially to re-nominate Michelle O’Neill as deputy First Minister until it received assurances over protections for the Irish language.
After Sinn Féin secured a commitment from the UK government to progress the cultural legislation at Westminster, the DUP was then rocked by an internal revolt over Poots’s decision to proceed with nominating Paul Givan as the new first minister.
After Poots was forced to resign, the incoming DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson warned that it is “not realistic” to expect stability in Northern Ireland under the terms of the NI Protocol.
In a keynote speech in the Balmoral Hotel in west Belfast, Mary Lou McDonald said: “The outworking of Brexit and the decision of the DUP to support it, the inevitable disaster of the post-election pact with the English Tories and the loss of the unionist majority in Stormont have created a political landscape which many within the leadership of the DUP seem incapable of reconciling themselves to.”
McDonald said she took “no comfort” from the internal difficulties in the DUP.
She added: “We don’t seek to humiliate or profit from the dysfunction within the DUP.”
The party leader said she had spoken with Donaldson yesterday and would meet with him next week.
She said: “The question facing him is whether he is up for real partnership, real powersharing, for political institutions that deliver? If the answer to those questions is yes then he will find a willing partner in the Sinn Fein team under [deputy First Minister] Michelle O’Neill.
A partner who wants to get on with the task of delivering better public services, tackling the hospital waiting lists, building decent homes and managing the economy out of Covid.
“A partner who will continue to give voice to those who have none, and who will work across party lines in both the Assembly and the Executive in achieving rights for women, Irish language speakers, newcomer communities and every section of the people who live here.”
McDonald said the contents of the New Decade New Approach deal that restored devolution in 2020 were non-negotiable.
“Its implementation is not a point of negotiation. It is an obligation on us all,” she said.
The failure of the DUP to meet this basic political benchmark and to obstruct basic rights is not the basis upon which effective partnership government can be built.
She also claimed the DUP’s approach to the NI Protocol was out of step with the wider public, including many unionists.
“The DUP will be making another political error if they seek to endanger the political stability of the institutions over the consequences of the outworking of their Brexit policy,” she said.
McDonald added: “Talk of abolishing the Irish protocol are not grounded in reality. Good faith engagement and use of the Joint Committee is the only mechanism to address challenges and difficulties.
The Sinn Féin president said it was critical that stability was restored to the powersharing institutions in Belfast.
“In the days ahead it is critical that political stability be restored. That is the minimum people expect,” she said.
Sinn Fein stands ready to renominate Michelle O’Neill as deputy First Minister. We will play our part.
McDonald reiterated her view that a referendum on Irish unity would come before the end of the decade.
“I firmly believe that within this decade the people will have the opportunity to freely choose new constitutional and political arrangements on this island, as underpinned by the provisions of the Good Friday Agreement,” she said.
“Let me be clear, there is no contradiction in working within a functioning powersharing government while building for a new united shared Ireland.”
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Might have been a good idea to check all that out before offering it to our kids luckily my wife was against it
Awh great, i knew there was a reason why i shouldn’t of got this.
At the time in Poland the Polish Health Minister would not grant permission for use because as a Doctor she said it had not been fully tested. Looks like she was right in some cases.
What about pregnant women being given this vaccine – wonder if they really know its effects on the unborn child.
I go it, as did my partner when the twins were getting their 6 months vaccinations. We both felt so desperate after it that we decided we weren’t going to give it to them at all…Boy am I happy now :)
Great now the idiots that are against vaccines will think they’re right all along just because of this little issue (in the big picture of things)
Of course many of these fools will claim vaccines cause autism but then they will convinently forget that the research they refer was proven to be false and misleading.
If these people think vaccines are so evil then they should take their chances with polio etc and see how their lives are
Let people look up “narcolepsy”, then “swine flu”, and decide which is worse. I’m still glad I got the jab last yea…zzzzzzzz.
IT AINT JUST A LITTLE ISSUE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! >:(
I was always against this flu jab. How many people went like lemmings to their doctors with their kids without checking the back round. Its actually banned in a number of european countries! I’m sorry but I just don’t trust GPs to give me safe medicines. Drug company’s force pharmacies and doctors to administer certain drugs by withholding best selling painkillers and other medicines. A pharmacist told me this on the record.
I’m 18 and got the swine flu jab in school earlier this year. Less than 5 hours later, I was completely paralysed on my left hand side, right from my face, my arm and hand and leg, with severe chest pains. I was rushed to hospital to get a morphine injection and thankfully I was ok afterwards. I wouldn’t recommend the swine flu jab to anyone and no one else in my family got it. My family doctor seemed very against it after he found out what happened, but it was brushed aside after.
Wasn’t there a story about this from last year ? The risks were widely known and the links proven in other European countries already so why has it taken the HSE so long to respond and only recently remove it after tens of thousands of people, including children, have already had the vaccine here ?
Shockingly inept but that’s nothing new for the HSE.
I never got the jab and worked through two winters in a&e dept’s , the first year particularly bad with every 3rd patient suspected swine flu. Im def pro vaccines but for anyone who is young fit and healthy surely the jab is totally unnecessary .
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