Flanagan says North’s parties should ‘act responsibly’

Minister for Foreign Affairs Charlie Flanagan has urged the Northern parties not to damage the political institutions of the Belfast Agreement during the expected forthcoming election.

An election appears inevitable in the coming months after the resignation of Martin McGuinness as Deputy First Minister yesterday.

In a statement released in response to Mr McGuinness’s announcement, Mr Flanagan said all parties should “act responsibly in word and deed, so that the political institutions of the agreement will not be damaged in the longer term”.

Privately, Government sources said they were "concerned but not particularly surprised" at the collapse of the Northern Executive as they had known such an outcome was likely since Sinn Féin demanded that First Minister Arlene Foster step down for the duration of an inquiry into the "cash-for-ash" scheme.

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Government sources say fresh elections to Stormont now seem "inevitable".

The Northern Secretary James Brokenshire is expected to be in contact with the leaders of the main parties over the coming days to see if there is any "wriggle room" for Sinn Féin and the DUP, according to one UK source.

Concern

However, it is understood there is no question of the institutions being suspended. If Sinn Féin has not nominated a Deputy First Minister by 5pm next Monday, there will be an election, said one authoritative source.

There is now significant concern in Dublin about whether it will be possible to reconstitute the Executive after the expected elections. Relations between the DUP and Sinn Féin had deteriorated to their lowest ebb since the DUP joined the powersharing administration under the late Ian Paisley in 2007 even before the "cash-for-ash" controversy arose.

Sinn Féin figures have repeatedly complained in recent weeks about a lack of "respect" from the DUP for their party and nationalism more generally, a perception heightened when DUP Minister Paul Givan cancelled funding for an Irish language support project just before Christmas.

However, Sinn Féin’s political opponents in Dublin also accused it of opportunism, with some suggesting that the party was seeking to capitalise on the political damage done to the DUP by the scandal.

Political interests

One source cited a poll in the

Belfast Telegraph

last week which showed public confidence in Ms Foster’s leadership had plummeted.

"Our fear is that party political interests have now overtaken the public interest," Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin said in a statement yesterday.

"The behaviour of the DUP and its leader since the BBC Spotlight programme highlighting the scale and impact of this issue has been infuriating. However, Sinn Féin's decision to respond by pulling the plug and demanding fresh elections would appear to do very little to address any of the underlying problems and does nothing to deal with the challenge of limiting taxpayer exposure. Indeed, it is likely to have significantly delayed any movement in that regard."

In London, a spokeswoman for British prime minister Theresa May said: "The prime minister has been kept updated on the resignation of Martin McGuinness. The Northern Ireland Secretary James Brokenshire is in contact with people there, encouraging all parties to continue the dialogue."