THE NEW FACE OF SINN FEIN LEADERSHIP IN THE U.K AND IRISH REPUBLICS

SINN FEIN :NO DEAL IN BELFAST

BY BENJAMIN KENTISH

'The DUP failed to close the deal and went on to collapse the talks process'

Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald, right, and her deputy, Michelle O’Neill, said the DUP was responsible for talks breaking down

Sinn Fein has released documents that it says show the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) reneged on a deal that would have restored power-sharing in Northern Ireland.

The nationalist party said an agreement had been reached at the end of last week following months of negotiations to restore the Stormont government, which collapsed in January 2017.

Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald said the parties had reached “an accommodation across the issues involved”, including plans for an Irish Language Act to boost the legal status of Gaelic– a move strongly opposed by many DUP supporter.s

It comes amid the on-going fallout over who was responsible for the talks collapsing on Wednesday. Negotiations were halted after DUP leader Arlene Foster issued a statement saying there was “currently no prospect” of a solution.

However, Sinn Fein has now claimed a deal had in fact been agreed in principle last week.  In addition to new laws placing Gaelic on the same legal footing as English, it said the agreement would also have resulted in an act to protect Ulster Scots and a third piece of legislation on respecting language and diversity. 

Sinn Fein said no consensus was reached on the issue of same-sex marriage, which the DUP has blocked despite a majority of Northern Irish assembly members supporting it, but that the parties had agreed to set up a committee to look at the possibility of a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland.

Ms McDonald said: “The DUP leader brought this phase of negotiations to a close and said ‘there is no current prospect of these discussions leading to an Executive being formed’.

"It is up to Arlene Foster to explain this given that the DUP and Sinn Fein leaderships had achieved an accommodation across the issues involved.”

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She added: “We had a draft agreement by the end of last week. At that time we advised the DUP leadership that the deal should be closed before those opposed to it could unpick what we had achieved.

"We made it clear that if there was a delay there was every chance that the package would unravel.

"The DUP failed to close the deal and went on to collapse the talks process