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Northern Ireland power-sharing talks on course for failure

Sinn Féin’s John O’Dowd and Máirtín Ó Muilleoir talk to the media following talks aimed at restoring power sharing in Northern Ireland.
Sinn Féin’s John O’Dowd and Máirtín Ó Muilleoir talk to the media following talks aimed at restoring power sharing in Northern Ireland. Photograph: Brian Lawless/PA

Talks to restore a power-sharing devolved government in Northern Ireland are on course to fail after Sinn Féin accused the Democratic Unionist party of refusing to budge in its opposition to an Irish language act.

Sinn Féin also dismissed suggestions that the discussions could be extended beyond Thursday’s deadline when, if there is no agreement, Northern Ireland secretary James Brokenshire may reimpose direct rule from London.

This would entail London-appointed Tory ministers running Northern Ireland’s devolved departments and also carving up the £1bn-plus aid package the DUP extracted from the Conservatives as the price for putting Theresa May back into Downing Street.

The party’s stance in the ongoing negotiations, which are expected to last late into Wednesday night, suggest the political discussions will probably not produce an agreement in Belfast.

With the clock ticking down to that deadline at Stormont on Thursday, Sinn Féin negotiator John O’Dowd said the DUP had “failed to resolve the issues which brought down the [devolved] institutions on January – rights, equality and respect”.

Asked if he was in favour of extending the deadline for another few days, O’Dowd replied: “I am not convinced that timescale is the problem. I think it all boils down to a willingness particularly by the DUP and the two governments to resolve the outstanding issues.

“These are implementation talks about outstanding agreements. Timescale is not the issue. It’s a willingness by the participants in the talks. No side has to compromise here because the compromises took place years ago. So there is an onus on the DUP and in particular the two governments to move this process forward.”

The “culture war” between the Democratic Unionists and Sinn Féin has emerged as the major stumbling block on the road to getting a power-sharing devolved government back up and running in Northern Ireland.

As talks in Belfast aimed at restoring a cross-community coalition reach their final phase ahead of Thursday’s deadline, the main point of contention is now Sinn Féin’s demand for an Irish language act.

Sinn Féin wants the act to be a “standalone” one, which means that it would only concern the rights of Irish speakers and putting the Gaelic language on an equal par in law to English.

The DUP meanwhile fearing criticism from more hardline unionists have argued for a more all-embracing culture act that would not only guarantee the rights of those who speak Irish but also Ulster Scots speakers as well as incorporating aspects of Orange and Protestant culture into legislation.

There is internal opposition within the Democratic Unionists to a standalone Irish language act because this would, according to party sources, “not provide political cover” for the DUP facing criticism of selling out by even more hardline unionists.

But Edwin Poots, one of the DUP negotiators, said: “I think we want to show absolute respect to people’s language and culture. And we are working extremely hard to work out what people’s bottom lines are and how we can move those issues forward. Education and health are more of a priority than languages. Sinn Féin have identified languages as their highest priority so we need to work with them to try and find a way through.”

Poots said the DUP would be prepared to “continue negotiations” even beyond Thursday’s deadline.

Another DUP source said that by late afternoon the “mood music” between the party and Sinn Féin was “very, very bad” at the talks inside Stormont Castle.

The Ulster Unionist party said on Wednesday evening it would not provide any political cover for the DUP if the latter party did agree to Sinn Féin’s demand for a standalone Irish language act. Robin Swann, the UUP leader, said the Irish language act model as presented by Sinn Féin “was unacceptable to us”.

Swann said: “We don’t see the appointment of a commissioner with the same powers of a high court judge as acceptable. Nor do we see a 10% recruitment on all civil servants being fluent Irish speakers as being something that is necessary in Northern Ireland at this time when we are actually going through a redundancy programme for the civil service.”