UUP and SDLP undermining power-sharing, says McGuinness

Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, addressing the Sinn Féin Ard Fheis tonight in Dublin, said that the Ulster Unionists and nationalist SDLP were undermining the power-sharing government.

The two smaller parties are junior partners in the cross-community coalition government, but Mr McGuinness said the groups were also effectively seeking to play the role of opposition parties.

The UUP and SDLP have claimed to have been sidelined by Sinn Féin and the DUP.

But Mr McGuinness said: “Unlike previous negotiations the Agreement reached at Hillsborough was not an act of patronage by the British or Irish Governments. It was brokered and agreed between political parties in the north. It is a good deal for every citizen on this island.

“It protects the progress of recent years, addresses outstanding issues from St Andrews including the transfer of policing, justice and parading powers from London to Ireland. It crucially maps out a future way of doing business on the basis of partnership and equality.

“But it also represents a challenge – not just to us or the DUP – but to those who have spent recent years backbiting or in the case of the former leader of the SDLP, soundbiting from the sidelines – those who for too long have tried to ride two horses.

“Let me say to the UUP it is impossible to sit round the power-sharing table by day and court rejectionist transfers by night. Or indeed, as the SDLP have tried to do, sit round the Executive table in Stormont Castle and then pretend to be in the opposition benches in the Assembly.”