DUP urge Government to find 'workable solutions sooner rather than later' over protocol

The Government has been urged to find "workable solutions sooner rather than later" over the Northern Ireland Protocol, a DUP MLA has said.

Emma Little-Pengelly made the comments ahead of a meeting with 200 state legislators from the United States on Thursday.

Meanwhile Sinn Féin MLA Conor Murphy said his party doesn't "get any sense of urgency" from the Government to resolve the devolution impasse.

Stormont is in stalemate due to the DUP's boycott of the Executive over concerns around post-Brexit trade arrangements.

When asked by reporters for a timescale for her party's discussions with the Government to secure a return to Stormont, Ms Little-Pengelly said "we are engaged in a process of back and forth in terms of the constructive discussion to try to find resolution to the issues."

"We have been very clear with the Government in the document we have given them, what we need to see, and we have highlighted the concerns and issues raised to us by businesses about the Windsor Framework, and I think it's very clear there are a lot of questions around what the implementation of all of this will mean," she added.

"We want to find solutions, we haven't been prescriptive about what those are because we want to get the maximum flexibility.

"I think there is, at the moment, a real obligation on the UK Government to build that trust with the people of Northern Ireland, fulfil what it is that the Prime Minister and his Government have promised to the people of Northern Ireland, and that's what we're waiting to see.

"These things can be done very, very quickly if there is political willingness to stretch, and to move and to find solutions. We believe this can be done very quickly if that willingness is there and we would urge the Government to find those workable solutions sooner rather than later and to allow for the stabilisation of things here."

Sinn Féin MLA Conor Murphy said he has detected no sense of urgency from the UK Government to get the Stormont Assembly fully functional again.

"We have had meetings with the British Government over the summer, and we have said when we came out that we don't get any sense of urgency whatsoever," he said.

"We have raised that with the Taoiseach when we met him a couple of weeks ago, and the penny seems to be dropping in Dublin at least.

"It is not a tenable situation to allow this to drift on. We're moving now into the implementation phase of the (Brexit) protocol arrangements and the DUP are still holding out in terms of negotiations.

"The two governments are co-guarantors of the Good Friday Agreement, they have a responsibility for taking action, for working together in the first instance, which would be a welcome development, and taking action to ensure that these institutions are put back in place.

"It shouldn't continue one day longer. It wasn't tenable when the DUP brought down the institutions, and it's certainly not tenable now."

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