Political leaders in Northern Ireland need to “make choices” to restore Stormont or else force an “unnecessary election”, Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney has warned.
Mr Coveney also insisted that Northern Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris is “not bluffing” about his intention to call a fresh Assembly poll next Friday if a powersharing executive is not in place.
Speaking on Wednesday during a return visit to a peace-building event in Belfast, seven months after a bomb threat forced him to abandon an address and evacuate the building, he delivered a defiant message to the loyalist paramilitaries linked to the hoax device.
“That was a futile, cowardly exercise in community control. It serves no one, no good purpose, except to drag the reputation of this decent community backwards to darker days,” he said.
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Mr Coveney confirmed he had met Mr Heaton-Harris on Wednesday morning.
“The law at the moment requires him to set dates for a new election if there is no establishment of an executive before the 28th October,” he told reporters at the Houben Centre in north Belfast. “The choice is not with the Secretary of State or me, the choice is with political leaders in Northern Ireland.
“Can they form a government and respond to the needs of people in Northern Ireland or do they want to stay out of government, force an election, and all that comes with that between now and the middle of December?”
Northern Ireland has been without a functioning government since May’s Assembly elections as the DUP has boycotted its formation until its concerns about the Northern Ireland protocol are dealt with.
Negotiations between the UK government and the EU have resumed to resolve the impasse over the post-Brexit trade deal — which Mr Coveney said were happening in a “positive light”.
But he warned that chances of a “big breakthrough” before next Friday were “very unlikely” due to the political turmoil at Westminster.
“I think the British government and EU are working through complex issues with a view to try to get accommodation and find a way to an agreement that both sides can commit to before the end of the year,” he said.
“But I think now political leaders in Northern Ireland will need to make choices; because of course there is no reason why the executive can’t be formed tomorrow or the next day. Four of the five parties want to do that and what I would say to the DUP is that, I hope they will reflect on the needs of Northern Ireland in the context of serious negotiations that are ongoing towards trying to find a resolution on the protocol issues.
“But I don’t regard the justification to prevent a devolved government from functioning in Northern Ireland, that has been outlined by the DUP, a valid one.”
He also expressed concerns about the impact of a “forced election” on negotiations between London and Brussels, saying he did not believe it “helped the process”.
Meanwhile, Mr Heaton-Harris restated his position on Wednesday about ordering the poll at “one minute past midnight” on October 28th if Stormont remains deadlocked.
He told reporters that talks between the UK government and the EU will continue “no matter what”.
Asked what he thinks a snap election will achieve if the DUP refuse to enter government again, he replied: “We will have had a democratic moment. Obviously we want to have an executive reformed, that’s the prize I’d like to see before the 28th so we can continue with a functioning executive.”
Mr Heaton-Harris said the protocol negotiations are happening “in good faith”.
“I’m a glass-half-full man on these matters… I’m confident they will continue but also, by the time we get to December, I think people will have expressed their views to their newly elected MLAs about the importance of certain issues.”
He added: “Never pre-judge the outcome of an election. It’s one thing I do know as a politician.”
On Wednesday afternoon, DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson led a party delegation in a meeting with UK prime minister Liz Truss in Downing Street to discuss protocol issues.
A DUP spokesman said: “We reiterated our position on the need to restore Northern Ireland’s place within the United Kingdom so that we can have fully functioning political institutions in Northern Ireland.”
He added that they “welcomed the prime minister’s commitment to the Northern Ireland protocol Bill”.
