UK PM May frustrated Northern Ireland lacks devolved government

Thomson Reuters

BELFAST, Northern Ireland (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May said on Friday that she was frustrated that Northern Ireland had been without a devolved government for over eighteen months.

"It is a matter of frustration and regret that after enjoying the longest period of unbroken devolved government since the 1960s, Northern Ireland has now been without a fully functioning executive for over eighteen months," she said in a speech in Belfast.

Part of the 1998 Belfast Agreement was the establishment of a power-sharing devolved government at Stormont, which collapsed in January 2017.

"I want to see the assembly and executive back up and running, taking decisions on behalf of all the people of Northern Ireland," May said. "We continue to do all we can to seek the re-establishment of devolution and all the institutions of the Belfast Agreement."

(Reporting by Ian Graham, writing by Sarah Young, editing by David Milliken)

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