Northern Ireland talks could begin in autumn: Irish PM

By Muhammad Mussa

LONDON

Talks to restore a powersharing agreement between Northern Ireland’s largest parties, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and Sinn Fein, could begin as early as autumn of this year, the Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said Wednesday.

Speaking to local daily Belfast Telegraph, Varadkar said: “We would intend, in the autumn some time, trying again to get the parties in Northern Ireland together.”

The Taoiseach also linked the increasing complexities of Brexit and the impasse in the negotiations to the continued failure of restoring the ministerial executive at Stormont in Belfast.

“I think the absence of any clarity around Brexit makes that very difficult but if we can have that in October, I think there is an opportunity, certainly before the end of the year, to get the assembly and executive up and running,” Varadkar said.

The border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland is a major sticking point in the Brexit negotiations and officials in both nations are calling for a no hard border between the two.

Arlene Foster, leader of the DUP, however, accused the Taoiseach of interfering in Northern Ireland and that she was unaware of any proposed talks for renewing negotiations.

“We haven’t heard from our own Government in relation to this, all we’ve had is comments from the Irish Republic’s Government,” Foster said.

“We had to push back a number [of] times and say to them that, in relation to the internal matters of Northern Ireland, those are matters for the United Kingdom Government and the parties in Northern Ireland,” she added.

The powersharing agreement between Sinn Fein and the DUP collapsed in January 2017 after First Minister Martin McGuiness resigned over a botched energy saving scheme.

Both parties, however, were unable to restore the powersharing agreement as they remained heavily divided over issues such as the Irish language act and LGBT rights.

As a result of this collapse and many failed attempts at restoring the ministerial executive, Northern Ireland has been under direct rule from the central government in Westminster.