Northern Ireland secretary rules out snap election

Northern Ireland’s political parties have been given up to an extra month to reach an agreement aimed at restoring cross-community power sharing government to the region, the secretary of state confirmed on Monday.

The original deadline for reaching a deal passed at 4pm with both major parties - the Democratic Unionist party and Sinn Féin - accusing each other of intransigence at the negotiations leading to this latest deadlock.

Yet rather than impose direct rule from London or declare a fresh election to the regional assembly at Stormont, the Northern Ireland secretary, James Brokenshire, instead said there would now be a “short window of opportunity” for the parties to secure a deal.

In the meantime, the Northern Ireland Civil Service would temporarily take over the running of devolved government departments in Belfast so that budgets could be set for public services, allow councils to set rates and fund community and voluntary organisations, of which many were under threat of closure.

At a press conference outside Stormont House on Monday afternoon, Brokenshire said “there will be widespread dismay across the community” in Northern Ireland over the failure to rebuild power sharing government, but he emphasised that there was still “an overwhelming desire” for stable devolved government in Belfast.

“Everyone owes it to the people of Northern Ireland to grasp that and provide the political leadership and stability that they want,” he said.

He declined to say whether he was in favour of an independent chairman overseeing the negotiations between the parties, in particular the DUP and Sinn Féin, during this short window.

He stressed that there was no appetite among the people of the region for a second snap election.

A number of politicians, including the nationalist Social Democratic and Labour party (SDLP), have called for an independent chairman to preside over the negotiations as US diplomat George Mitchell did in 1988 in the successful discussions that led to the Good Friday Agreement.

Earlier on Monday, the DUP leader, Arlene Foster, claimed there “wasn’t a spirit of compromise” within Sinn Féin to create a new power sharing executive.

But her Sinn Féin counterpart, Michelle O’Neill, countered that it was the DUP which was responsible for the failure of the talks.

She said: “We came at the negotiations with the right attitude, wanting to make the institutions work, wanting to deliver for all citizens. Unfortunately, the DUP maintained their position in relation to blocking equality, delivery of equality for citizens - that was the problem.”

The Sinn Féin leader in Northern Ireland was referring in particular to issues such as her party’s demand for an Irish Language Act to give Gaelic the same legal power as English in the region. The DUP is resisting this and the two parties also disagree over how to deal with unsolved crimes from the Northern Ireland Troubles.

The DUP MP Nigel Dodds contrasted the republicans’ attitude on Monday with goodwill shown to Foster when she turned up to the funeral of the former IRA chief of staff and later deputy first minister Martin McGuinness in Derry last Thursday.

Referring to Foster and O’Neill shaking hands in the church at a requiem mass for McGuinness, Dodds said: “That handshake represented a reaching out but that inclusivity was not then carried into the talks.”

The last public political act by McGuinness was to resign as deputy first minister of Northern Ireland in January. He did so in protest at Foster’s refusal to stand aside temporarily from her post as first minister while a public inquiry was held into a costly botched green energy scheme.

The Northern Ireland Renewable Heat Incentive, which the DUP championed, ended up costing the public purse an estimated half a billion pounds. Once McGuinness resigned over the controversy, the cross-community government in Belfast collapsed, prompting elections to a new assembly on 2 March. Sinn Féin increased its seats in the regional parliament to come within one seat of the DUP, which remains the largest party.

The Irish foreign minister, Charlie Flanagan, said the passing of the deadline on Monday without a deal was “deeply regrettable”.

Flanagan said: “It is particularly concerning that a vacuum in devolved government in Northern Ireland should now be occurring just as the island of Ireland faces up to the many serious challenges represented by the UK exit from the EU. In these circumstances, all concerned must redouble efforts to achieve the re-establishment of power-sharing government in Northern Ireland, which is so plainly in the interests of all its citizens.

“The Irish government will continue to advocate very strongly for Northern Ireland’s interests to be protected. However, there is no substitute for an executive speaking with one voice on these critical issues.”