Windsor Framework: People of NI do not understand how good a deal it is, says US senator

US senator Chris Murphy has questioned whether the people of Northern Ireland “understand how good a deal” the Windsor Framework is for them.

The Connecticut Democrat, a member of the influential US senate foreign relations committee, said the framework was “a windfall for Northern Ireland”.

Mr Murphy, who is of Irish and Polish descent, led a bipartisan delegation to Ireland and the UK in recent days, meeting officials to discuss securing peace in the North, the war in Ukraine and transatlantic co-ordination on competition with China.

Speaking to The Irish Times, the US senator said the situation in Northern Ireland was “deeply frustrating”.

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“As someone who has spent a lot of time in Belfast and working on Northern Ireland issues, it’s heartbreaking that there cannot be an agreement to form a Government and the losers are the people of Northern Ireland, at a moment when there’s so much going for Northern Ireland,” he said.

“The Windsor Framework, to me, is a windfall for Northern Ireland. I don’t know that the people of Northern Ireland understand how good a deal they have got.

“They are the only place that has the dual benefits of being firmly planted in the market of Great Britain and the European Union at the same time and if the political leaders could get their act together, they could get on a path of starting to really put together a strategy to reap those potential rewards.”

Mr Murphy said he believed that British prime minister Rishi Sunak does have “peace in Northern Ireland” as a priority.

“I am confident that they are going to use whatever levers they have given once parliament starts back up and the political season begins again in the fall to try to get the Government [in Northern Ireland] back in,” he said.

“My fear though, is that if it doesn’t happen this year, we won’t have a government in Stormont until after the next British election and that would be an absolute tragedy.”

The US senator also said that his sense was that Americans have “no fear for their safety” coming to Ireland, following an attack on tourist Stephen Termini (57), from New York, in Dublin in July. Mr Termini had been staying at a guest house on Talbot Street and was attacked near Store Street Garda station.

“I understand that was a big and important story here but it has not translated to the United States,” Mr Murphy said.

“I think most Americans feel like they’re safer in Ireland than they probably are in some of the places that they’re coming from in the States.”

The Democratic senator said the US presidential election next year would be “another super close election” but that Joe Biden would overcome Donald Trump, who he believed will be the Republican Party’s candidate.

Mr Murphy said the “wisdom and experience” of the 81-year-old president had allowed him to make a “really gutsy call” in relation to withdrawing US troops from Afghanistan.

“Domestically, we’ve never seen a president be so successful in his first two years legislatively – [we’ve had] the first ever big climate legislation, the first gun control bill in 30 years, the biggest infrastructure investment America ever made,” he said.

“If Joe Biden wasn’t so wildly successful legislatively, if he wasn’t so ably managing America’s affairs overseas, maybe you would have questions about his age, but there is absolutely no sign that he cannot be effective.

“In fact, there are arguments that he has been more effective than any first-term president in recent memory.”

Mr Murphy said there was “plenty of talent” in the Democratic Party, but that “when an incumbent president is doing a good job and wants to run again, his party tends to support him”.

“Joe Biden has not made any big mistakes, in fact he has delivered on many Democratic priorities that previous presidents weren’t able to deliver on,” he said. “So there’s understandably no interest in the Democratic Party to challenge a sitting president who has been very successful and very efficient in implementing democratic priorities.”

Mr Murphy also said that the gun lobby in the US was “losing power” and Mr Biden had made it clear he would “run with guns as one of his priority issues”.

The senator said: “He believes in it and he is personally committed to the issue but also because he knows that politically it is now a way that you can win elections.

“Ten years ago, prior to Sandy Hook, (when 26 children and adults died in a school shooting in 2012) the feeling amongst Democrats was that the issue of guns was a political loser. It wasn’t. I think that was a mistake that the Democrats made at the time but we now have a leader who understands you can be for changes in gun laws and win an election based on those views.”