The deadline for restoring Northern Ireland’s power-sharing government is set to expire at midnight tonight. If no progress has been made towards forming a new executive, the Northern Ireland secretary falls under a legal obligation to call an early assembly election. However, Chris Heaton-Harris, who has pushed back the deadline several times before, has indicated that he plans to do so again. Instead, he has said that he will bring forward legislation “on these matters” next week.
The deadline is coinciding with a mass strike in Northern Ireland by more than 100,000 public sector workers who are protesting over pay and conditions. Northern Ireland’s devolved government collapsed in February 2022 after the Democratic Unionist Party withdrew in protest against post-Brexit trade checks between the region and Great Britain, which it believes diminish the region’s place within the UK internal market. A new deal called the Windsor Framework aimed at addressing concerns was agreed in 2023 by the government and European Union, but it was criticised by the DUP for not going far enough.
Local parties and trade unions are calling on Chris Heaton-Harris to tackle the pay dispute in the absence of an executive. However, he has argued that it is a matter for local ministers to address. The DUP has called for a better financial package for incoming ministers. On Wednesday, the assembly was recalled in a seventh attempt to restore devolved government, but the DUP once again vetoed the election of an assembly speaker, meaning that no other business could take place.
If an executive is not re-established, the Secretary of State is set to be involved for a second consecutive year in setting Stormont’s budget. Last year, he set a budget for Stormont in the absence of local ministers, leaving unelected civil servants with the task of making substantial cuts. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has previously called for a “plan B” if the Stormont institutions are not restored. The original legal deadline for forming an executive was 28 October 2022
Read the full article from The BBC here: Read More