Northern Ireland Secretary Heaton Harris 'says no barriers' to restoring government

Northern Ireland Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris has insisted it is “hard to see any barriers” for the restoration of devolved government. He met with the major Stormont parties in a series of bilateral meeting at Hillsborough Castle across Monday. He said during those meetings, they discussed the January 18 deadline for an Assembly and Executive to be reformed, after which he must call fresh elections.

He said: “In my meetings today I emphasised it is now 23 months that the people of Northern Ireland have been without the locally elected politicians, they voted for taking the decisions needed to tackle the issues faced by the people and businesses across Northern Ireland, and I outlined the generous financial package offered to the parties before Christmas, worth over three billion pounds, that is currently available from day one of a reformed executive, the financial package which provides solutions to many issues raised by the parties, including money that would enable a restored executive to give public sector workers a pay award."

He also said Windsor framework talks with the DUP had "effectively concluded" but that they were able to make further progress on matters in the past week. He said it was time for decisions.

"I’ve urged all parties to take the next step and form an executive," he continued.

“It is hard to see any barriers whatsoever to stop this from happening as soon as possible. The people of Northern Ireland deserve to have the the people they voted for working for them.” Turning to a major strike by public sector workers in Northern Ireland planned for Thursday, Mr Heaton-Harris insisted the matter is a devolved one. Earlier the DUP pressed the government to pay workers.

“The industrial action taken by the unions will disrupt the lives of many people across Northern Ireland,” The Northern Ireland Secretary said. “Public sector pay in Northern Ireland is devolved. This is properly a matter for locally elected politicians who are best placed, and I quote others here, to tackle the unprecedented challenges confronting citizens, public services, particularly the immediate matter of public sector pay today in Northern Ireland. “If an executive has not been reformed by Friday, then as I say, I will have various decisions to make and I will set out my next steps in due course. “To end, I do believe that all the conditions necessary are now in place for the political representatives in Northern Ireland to govern on behalf of the people who elected them. “It is time for the talking and debate to finish. It is time for Stormont to get back to work.”

He said that they have done “everything we can” in talks with the DUP over the Northern Ireland Protocol, and said it is “time for decisions to be made”. “As of – whatever it is, a minute past or a minute to midnight on – Thursday night, I might need to call an election,” Mr Heaton Harris said. “I have a duty to decide whether an election is called. And also, actually, for an executive to be reformed I need a piece of primary legislation. So next week, I will be laying primary legislation before the floor of the House, which is an evolution of some of the things I’ve been saying. “I will need to also, eventually, in the course of the next few weeks, pass a budget for next year, and all of those matters will be taken into consideration at that point.” Mr Heaton-Harris also said: “I’d like to think that it’s a very generous financial package that’s on offer for reformation of the Executive which would be attractive to all the political parties. I believe we’ve done everything we can in the space of the Windsor Framework talks with the DUP, answered all the questions that they’ve put to us appropriately, and now it is time for decisions to be made.”

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