'No room for further delay' in convening Northern Ireland Assembly, Dáil hears

Labour leader Ivana Bacik said in the Dáil: 'If we listen to some members of the Democratic Unionist Party, DUP, the tone is jarring with the more conciliatory words that have been spoken by Jeffrey Donaldson.' Picture: Damien Storan

There is now no logic for the DUP to continue its blockade, the Dáil has heard.

Speaking on Tuesday, Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald said the negotiations over the Northern Ireland Protocol are over and the deal has been struck in the form of the Windsor Framework.

“There is now no room for further delay or prevarication. Nine months on, people in the North need their Government up and functioning. Will the Taoiseach join with me in calling on the DUP to make that happen without further delay,” she said.

Labour leader Ivana Bacik said her party was concerned by the tone of reception from certain quarters, even though we see a perceived improvement in relations between the governments across the two islands.

If we listen to some members of the Democratic Unionist Party, DUP, the tone is jarring with the more conciliatory words that have been spoken by Jeffrey Donaldson.

As one of the custodians of the Good Friday Agreement, is the Taoiseach concerned we are seeing the emergence of a hard-line unionist veto, and that the Stormont break may function to enable that sort of veto, she asked.

In response, Mr Varadkar said the Stormont break is there, in many ways to counterbalance the consent mechanism that is already in the protocol. The protocol can be disapplied in full only by a vote of the assembly, he added.

Mr Varadkar said the agreement reached between the UK Government and the EU is “most welcome”.

He said the Windsor Framework is a package of legislative changes at EU and UK level, a political declaration, or rather a number of political declarations, and also amendments to the protocol.

Ireland can be comfortable and satisfied with the outcome, he said.

“None of this is compromised by this new framework. More importantly, none of it was ever in question,” he added.

Mr Varadkar also said this is a good agreement for Europe and the UK. It will allow us to put relations back on a more solid footing, he said.

That is really important now because we need the UK as a partner and ally when it comes to the war in Ukraine, the energy crisis, bringing inflation down, and other things that are important to all of us. It could be very good for Irish and British relations as well.

He said the agreement also works for Northern Ireland.

There will be no hard border between North and South, businesses will have access to both the EU and UK markets, he said.

“Issues with medicines, parcels, plants, pets, packages, sweet potatoes and steel have all been resolved. Northern Ireland will be able to apply UK excise and VAT rates in certain circumstances. A serious effort has been made to close the democratic deficit through the Stormont brake mechanism,” he added.