Stormont dispute may impact on visit to US by NI leaders

Minister for Foreign Affairs Charlie Flanagan held separate telephone talks last night with Martin McGuinness, Theresa Villiers and Dr Alasdair McDonnell to try to determine if there is any way to avert the latest crisis that threatens the future of the Northern Executive and Assembly.

There was a sense of shock, confusion and bewilderment at Stormont after Mr McGuinness, the Deputy First Minister, announced that Sinn Féin would oppose the scheduled final passage of the Welfare Bill in the Northern Assembly yesterday evening.

Word of this crisis came as Mr McGuinness and First Minister Peter Robinson were preparing to fly to the United States today for a major investment drive as well as taking in the annual Washington St Patrick's Day celebrations.

Most of that trip may now be cancelled, a senior Stormont source said on Monday. Mr Robinson and Mr McGuinness plan to take in the first leg of the visit by meeting potential investors in New York on Tuesday and then possibly returning without travelling to the west coast or Washington as originally planned, he said.

Much of yesterday was spent in recrimination with Mr McGuinness and Mr Robinson accusing each other of reneging on a clearly stated Stormont House Agreement.

Before Christmas the Stormont institutions were threatened because of Sinn Féin’s opposition to British welfare reform. That crisis was avoided when Sinn Féin said it would remove its hitherto staunch opposition to the reform, thus facilitating the striking of the Stormont House deal.

That agreement allowed for £564 million to be spent over the coming six years to alleviate the worst effects of welfare change on benefit claimants.

Mr McGuinness yesterday accused the DUP of “reneging on their commitments to protect the most vulnerable”.

“It is their intention to provide only partial protection to current recipients of benefit and no protection whatsoever for future claimants,” he said.

Mr McGuinness said until the DUP social development Minister, Mervyn Storey, gave "effect to the intent of the Stormont House Agreement by providing full protection for current and future claimants, Sinn Féin will not be in a position to support the welfare bill going through the Assembly".

Later in the afternoon a decision was taken not to proceed with the final stage of the Welfare Bill. This happened after Sinn Féin and the SDLP joined in a petition of concern, a mechanism which effectively meant the two parties could block the passing of the legislation.

Mr Robinson said the statement from Mr McGuinness was “dishonourable and ham-fisted” while insisting his party had not reneged on the deal.

“I was completely dumbfounded as to how anybody could credibly make that kind of statement when they knew that there was a document in the public arena which showed precisely what had been agreed,” he said.

“Most people are scratching their heads wondering what on earth has Martin McGuinness been taking over the last number of days.”

This crisis came out of the blue as Stormont had been running surprisingly smoothly since the Stormont House Agreement. Now matters such as the promised devolution of corporation tax-setting powers as well as a planned civil service voluntary redundancy scheme are imperilled.