Covid-19: North's justice minister hits out at 'shameful' approach to restrictions

A man wearing a face mask walks past an entrance to Belfast City Hospital.

The North's Justice Minister says that the brinksmanship over new Covid-19 restrictions was "shameful and embarrassing".

Alliance Party leader Naomi Long says that the week's negotiations on the restrictions left her "beyond despair".

"I think anyone with an ounce of sense or sanity or scruples will have questioned their participation in an executive which patently failed the people of Northern Ireland," she told RTÉ Radio One.

The Democratic Unionist Party and ministers from smaller parties in the powersharing administration backed the proposal made by Economy Minister Diane Dodds, with Health Minister Robin Swann backing the deal in an attempt to avoid restrictions lapsing and the hospitality sector reopening over the weekend.

Sinn Féin voted against and the SDLP abstained after days of wrangling which have left businesses in limbo.

Ms Long said that the DUP's use of the cross-community veto mechanism to object to Mr Swann's more restrictive two-week plan was "a perversion" of the Good Friday Agreement's intent.

Naomi Long says negotiations on the Covid-19 restrictions left her 'beyond despair'.

She said that the veto was a "flaw of the Good Friday Agreement" and allowed parties to block "sensible decision".

"This was designed to prevent minorities from majority rule. Instead, we have had the largest party in Northern Ireland deploy the veto against a fellow unionist minister's proposal. The degree of the perversion of that protection's original intent is there for all to see.

"I cannot see why there was any need to deploy that veto. At one stage, four out of five parties in the executive, six out of 10 ministers, were in favour of the proposals, but the DUP was able to block it. You cannot do government like that."

She said that the compromise deal, which avoided restrictions around business closures, gatherings and household visits lapsing at midnight tonight, was "uneasy and uncomfortable", but "better than the alternative".

"It was not good versus better, it was bad versus worse."

Ms Long said that trust in the Northern Executive had been damaged and there was "a lot of work to be done" to "repair the damage done over the last week. "We owe people clarity and swift decision making."