DUP calls on O'Neill to step aside over funeral attendance
The DUP has called on deputy First Minister Michelle O’Neill to step aside after attending a large republican funeral in west Belfast.
However, a spokesperson for Sinn Féin has said she is going nowhere.
Ms O’Neill was one of several senior party members who joined hundreds of mourners at the service for Bobby Storey on Tuesday.
First Minister Arlene Foster wrote to her partner in government on Thursday morning, telling her to stand down pending a police and Assembly investigation into the scenes.
The move has plunged Northern Ireland’s power-sharing institutions into crisis again, with four of the five Executive parties now urging Ms O’Neill to consider her position.
On Tuesday, Ms Foster urged Ms O'Neill to apologise and make amends for what happened at the funeral.
The deputy First Minister declined and defended her actions, insisting she acted within the coronavirus health and safety guidelines.
In a statement, Sinn Féin said: "Michelle O'Neill will not be stepping aside as deputy First Minister under any circumstances."
The DUP's Westminster leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has indicated Mrs Foster will not appear alongside Ms O'Neill for Thursday's scheduled Stormont press conference.
He says the party has met to consider the matter.
"I think now is the time to step up and demonstrate respect and integrity,” Mr Donaldson told BBC Radio Ulster.
"The law on these matters is clear and what happened at that funeral has sent out a very, very bad message to people in Northern Ireland."
The events have echoes of the RHI furore that pulled down the devolved government in 2017, when Mrs Foster refused to accede to a Sinn Féin call for her to stand down pending an investigation into the botched green energy scheme.
SDLP Leader Colum Eastwood also called for Ms O'Neill to step aside and allow her actions to be examined by Assembly standards authorities.
He said: “The SDLP did not rush to judgment on this. We waited to hear from Michelle O’Neill at her scrutiny committee yesterday.
“We considered her response and have, unfortunately, been disappointed with the absence of contrition and the failure to acknowledge that attending this mass gathering was a mistake that put people at risk.”
The Ulster Unionist Party and Alliance Party have also called for Ms O’Neill to stand down.
Guidance set by the Northern Ireland Executive says a maximum of 30 people should attend a funeral, and friends should only attend when there are no family members in attendance.
Ms O'Neill has insisted the funeral cortege was limited to 30 while social distancing inside the church was "exemplary".
It is understood more than 100 people were inside the church.
On Wednesday, Ms O'Neill acknowledged that a selfie taken at the cemetery of her posing close to two men, one of whom had his arm on her shoulder, "should not have happened".
She said the photo happened in a "blink of an eye" as she was leaving the graveside.
A statement from the PSNI earlier in the week said they would review footage from the funeral and “consider any suspected breaches” of the Covid-19 regulations.
Marc Mallett reports from the Policing Board meeting: