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THE TAOISEACH HAS said Rishi Sunak is hopeful talks with the DUP on restoring power sharing in Northern Ireland are moving towards a positive conclusion.
Leo Varadkar said the Prime Minister briefed him on the status of the UK Government’s negotiations with the DUP during their bilateral meeting in Spain yesterday.
Mr Varadkar, who remained in Granada today for a meeting with EU leaders, said a window of opportunity to reach an agreement may be approaching.
Yesterday night, DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson insisted gaps remain between Government and his party on the post-Brexit trade border impasse.
Emerging from a meeting of the DUP’s ruling executive in Lurgan, Co Armagh, Sir Jeffrey said he was not going to set any deadlines on the engagement with London but he indicated the Government was now in a position to respond to his party’s latest requests.
The DUP withdrew first minister Paul Givan from the Stormont executive in February 2022 in protest at the internal UK trade barriers created by Brexit’s Northern Ireland Protocol.
Power sharing is unable to function without the participation of the region’s largest unionist party.
The UK and EU agreed the Windsor Framework earlier this year in an attempt to address unionist concerns about the protocol but the DUP has indicated it will not return to the Stormont Assembly until the UK Government provides further assurances over Northern Ireland’s place in the UK internal market.
One of the main parts of the framework, the green/red lane system for the movement of goods, became operational at Northern Ireland ports on Sunday.
Mr Varadkar was asked about his meeting with Mr Sunak as he spoke to reporters in Granada this morning.
“Prime minister Sunak gave me a briefing on the talks and contacts that they’re having with the DUP at the moment,” he said.
“They’re ongoing. He didn’t go into the detail of those but very much said that they were bilateral discussions between the DUP and the UK Government, and that he hoped that they were moving towards a conclusion and that that would be a positive conclusion. But that remains to be seen.”
Mr Varadkar added: “There wasn’t any timeline given but you’ll be aware the DUP had an internal party meeting that happened there yesterday, and their conference is coming up at the weekend (October 13/14).
“So, you know, perhaps this is another window of opportunity to come to an agreement, an agreement between the UK Government and the DUP which enables the Assembly, executive and the North South Ministerial Council to start functioning again.
“So, you know, hopefully that’s the case but that remains to be seen over the next couple of weeks.”
Sir Jeffrey said yesterday’s meeting of his party’s executive was “very positive” and there were no dissenting voices.
He said he was not in a position to make a recommendation to party colleagues as he had not yet received the UK’s latest proposals.
“Clearly there are still gaps between us and them in terms of the shortcomings of the Windsor Framework, the areas where we believe it does not go far enough in delivering for Northern Ireland and our ability to trade within the United Kingdom on its internal market,” he said.
“And the party is very clear – we’re focused on what we need to achieve and over the next few weeks we’ll continue that engagement with the Government to try and get to the solution that we need.
“A solution that both unionists and nationalists can support, that provides the strong foundations that Stormont needs to get back up and running.”
Earlier, Sinn Fein Stormont leader Michelle O’Neill said the coming weeks would be “critical” in efforts to restore the Stormont Assembly and executive.
Addressing a meeting of party activists in Co Armagh, Sinn Fein’s vice president said a pragmatic approach was required by all political parties to “get down to business”.
Leo the Tory boy
A man whose career is founded on keeping Sinn Fein out of power and smearing them all as psychopathic terrorists . Now he is trying to facilitate them getting into power – but not in his own country of course
@Nope: Why would he facilitate SF in getting into power in the South?
He is merely trying to facilitate the restoration of government in NI, which shouldn’t have to depend on the whims of any one party.
@Nope: I’ve read some quare takes on the north but yours takes the biscuit.
@Nope: which other country are you talking about
Have they still not learned that dealing with Donaldson the dinosaur and his 1690 ilk will get them nowhere?
@Richard Starling: DUP= don’t understand politics.
Joint authority needs to be discussed. If the DUP doesn’t get back to work, it should happen, followed by a border poll.
@Mike smith: Why is there not the same pressure on SF to take their Westminster seats and represent the interests of their constituents ??
The DUP should make that a precondition before returning to Stormont imo.
If Machine Gun Marty can quaff Cava and Scoff Scones with the UK Commander in Chief then they can take their seats fgs
It is 2023 not 1916 !!!!!
@Gertrude Gilmore: I get that there’s a lot of pain on both sides but one thing Unionism never seems capable of acknowledging is how they arrived in Ireland in the first place. Considering the culture they want to be associated with is pretty much an endless volley of songs and sound bites about leading, ruling, ‘never being slaves’ etc, can you not understand why there might be a considerable dose of antipathy towards showing up in Westminster and bowing to whatever Royal is currently top of the deck? Other people have values too.
It’s absolutely time to move on and reconcile. But asking Sinn Fein to show up on another landmass with an entire system fundamentally at odds with their values, plus everyone who believes in non-colonial democracy too, is a bit of an ask no?
@SerotoninWars: Sorry, I stopped at but……
tldr
@Gertrude Gilmore: Because SF has no interest in governing a foreign country. It does not recognise the legitimacy of the empire, which was built on murder and theft.
@Mike smith: “Because SF has no interest in governing a foreign country”
What ???? N Ireland as per the Belfast Agreement is part of the UK
Why are they crying to administer British Rule In N Ireland then ?
You just failed, in an epic way :/
PWNED :D
@Gertrude Gilmore: Irish people governing in Ireland. Hardly an own. Keep trying.
Keep your nose out of it varadkar
@Gertrude Gilmore: You can keep out of Ireland’s business.
@Gertrude Gilmore: Joint authority it is so Gertie
@Anthony Curran: No one wants a return to operations like those in Dublin and Monaghan
As the Late David Ervine said, it was returning the serve.
Varadkar should keep his nose out
@Gertrude Gilmore: he has every right to engage in Northern affairs ie The Anglo Irish Agreement!! 32 is coming and get used to it union gerty boy
@Gertrude Gilmore: Are you implying that a bunch of loyalists who couldn’t get the flag back up on Belfast City Hall would have the capability to carry out a bombing campaign in Dublin? You know the British army won’t help them this time, don’t you?
@Anthony Curran: The U.V.F. have clarified they had no assistance in the Dublin and Monaghan operations.
Excellent historical research material…I recommend you read it
“In this part we’ll cover the advent of the loyalist car bomb, the characteristics of home-made devices, the largely forgotten UVF bombing offensive of late 1973, the bombing of Dublin and Monaghan (which, contrary to the claims of campaigners, required little technical expertise), and why the UVF largely stopped using explosives in 1977 before resuming attacks 15 years later.”
@Gertrude Gilmore: Everyone knows there was collusion. We also know there won’t be in future. Time to negotiate the best deal you can get.
@Gertrude Gilmore: Sorry, I stopped reading after you said “the UVF have clarified…”
@Gertrude Gilmore: but the Glenanne Gang did made up of ruc, udr & various loyalist paramilitaries. Those bombings were carried out by loyalists with the help/expertise of British military officials. You really haven’t a clue and should just get off this site
@DJ D: “but the Glenanne Gang did made up of ruc”
?????????
Wow….I think you better stick to Irish if this is the low standard of your English.
@Anthony Curran: Martin McGuinness eventually came to heel.
You could take a leaf out of his book dear boy.
@Gertrude Gilmore: that is all you can say…shows your lack of intelligence!
Go and read a history book union gerty boy! You’ll find some of the answers about what your murdering loyalist heroes did
@Gertrude Gilmore: usual loyalist/unionist reaction to Truth by having a wobbler and throwing their sweets out of the pram!!! Mo r on
Get someone to look at you the way Leo is looking at Rishi in the picture. Love is in the air.
@: that’s a ‘playing footsie’ look
Wake up commentators, Leo, Rishi and every other gullable leader. Wee Jeffrey will always find an excuse not to go into government with Sinn Fein first minister, and he has too many DUP and far right unionist b1g0ts looking over his shoulder and threatening him.
Any bets on the next simpteton excuse he will use not to go into the Assembly.
@ Brendan Maybe because they have the largest mandate from the voting publlic unlike Varadkar s personal poll and the horse trading that has the current rainbow coalition in power . But then again Varadkars own party didn’t want him as leader unless you undemocratically apportion votes based on power (TDs v councillors )
@Nope: It has never been the case that parties want other parties with larger votes than them to be in government: that would be ludicrous.
In 1973 FF got nearly half the votes (twice the proportion that SF got in the last election), and didn’t end up in government. Mass hysteria did not ensue.
@Brendan O’Brien: those were the days when it was basically two parties.
@brian madden: FG and Labour formed a coalition government.
I’d love to be a fly on the wall for that one. So many layers to it.
Leo finds most compatible company, they are like peas in a pod.
Brendan , I agree, however I think you are missing the original point of trying to convince unionists to change their strategy of keeping a Sinn Fein leader out of power when the only defining characteristic of the coalition he belongs to is exactly the same .
Ireland and the UK will never not be a total mess will they?
Brendan – The party with the most votes in power – “ludicrous” !
@Nope: Not ludicrous if they can find a way to form a coalition. If you knew anything about Irish parliamentary tradition you wouldn’t be making this argument.
Why is there not the same pressure on SF to take their Westminster seats and represent the interests of their constituents ??
The DUP should make that a precondition before returning to Stormont imo.
If Machine Gun Marty can quaff Cava and Scoff Scones with the UK Commander in Chief then they can take their seats fgs
It is 2023 not 1916 !!!!!
@Gertrude Gilmore: Why should they when to do so requires them to take an oath of allegience to the King? That’s the very last thing they would be doing.
@Gertrude Gilmore: Oh why won’t they do as they are commanded anymore! These republican ideals are ghastly things that give no succour to our monarchy! The horror!
@Gertrude Gilmore: So you will support the DUP taking their seats in the Dáil so Gertie? Good to hear!
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
Yesterday night..!!
I believe Ulster had a turbulent history already, long before the English arrived ; if Irish legends are to be believed.
It’s possible there was already a problem with the Scots as well.
England and France were probably the first ‘nation states’ as we still know them. Their rivalry drove colonialism and expansionism in a way ..
@offside again: The thing that lots of Irish people forget (or were never taught) is that the High King of Ireland invited the Normans to help him bring some of the uppity tribal leaders under control. The Normans agreed to do so and the rest is history.
@Andrew Harrington: High king you say. But Union Jack Moss and others keep saying Ireland was never united before. I don’t think that person said come and colonise the people for 800 years.
Keep your says to yourself, no help what’s so ever
Nice to see two good friends meet
Wee Sammy says “No”
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