The Irish Government should have an enhanced role in the governance of Northern Ireland if the Stormont powersharing institutions cannot be restored, Sinn Fein MP John Finucane has said.
Mr Finucane called on DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson to show leadership as he said the unionist party needs to end its Stormont boycott.
The MP was speaking as Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris introduced legislation at Westminster setting a new deadline for resurrecting the powersharing executive.
The devolved institutions at Stormont have been collapsed for almost two years as a result of a DUP boycott in protest against the post-Brexit trade barriers between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Mr Finucane said it remained to be seen if the Government move to create a short extension in legislation for the forming of a ministerial executive would be followed by a return of the Assembly.
He said: “Jeffrey Donaldson needs to finally respect the outcome of the last Assembly election, he needs to embrace powersharing because every single day of delay of the DUP has real impact and consequences for people here.
“We risk further industrial action, we see our public sector workers still going without the pay rise that they deserve and we have a health crisis.
“We have waiting lists that are spiralling out of control, so we need the DUP back in the Assembly, in the executive, we want to share power with them, we want to be around an executive table and it is time the DUP made that call.”
He added: “One thing is clear, the negotiations (over the Windsor Framework) are over, they’ve been over between the British Government and the Europeans for quite some time, and they’ve also been over between the British Government and the DUP for quite some time.
“So, what this delay has been all about really is anybody’s guess and the longer this goes on the worse the impact will be for every single person in society here and that is an intolerable situation.”
Mr Finucane said there had to be an alternative plan if the DUP does not return to Stormont.
He said: “Our preference is plan A, to have the Assembly and the executive back up and running, to have locally elected politicians around an executive table making decisions in the best interests of everybody here.
“But if the DUP refuse to accept powersharing, if they refuse to accept Michelle O’Neill as first minister, then what we can’t have is a return to direct rule, I think there is a wide agreement on that.
“It is an enhanced role for the Irish government in an enhanced partnership between the two governments and it is strengthening that aspect of the Good Friday Agreement that can work, namely the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference.”
Mr Finucane added: “What everybody wants to see from Jeffrey Donaldson is leadership, we want to see him bring his party into the Assembly, into the executive, and we want to see that happen sooner rather than later.”
