‘Do they want a solution at all?’: O’Neill questions UK government’s stance on NI protocol

Sinn Féin deputy leader Michelle O'Neill has questioned whether the UK government wants to solve the issues around the Northern Ireland protocol in her speech to her party's ardfheis.

“The new red lines set out by the British government begs the question, do they want a solution at all?” Ms O’Neill said.

The North's Deputy First Minister said she "reminded the British government this week that a majority in the North see the protocol as the solution to their Brexit disaster" and reiterated her party's position that "there is no credible alternative to the protocol".

Ms O’Neill was delivering the opening address to the ardfheis in Dublin on Saturday morning. Taking place under the theme of Time for Change, the event is the party’s first ardfheis since 2019 after last year’s was cancelled due to Covid-19.

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Sinn Féin’s priorities, Ms O’Neill said, were “health, housing, education, jobs and Irish unity”.

In her speech she attacked what she described as the "dead-end politics" of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), and said its boycott of North-South Ministerial Council meetings as part of its opposition to the Northern Ireland protocol was "a futile stunt to provoke outrage" which had been "in vain".

“Harking back to a bygone era of unionist rule is a lost cause too,” Ms O’Neill said. “The DUP has declared that a Sinn Féin First Minister after the next election would give unionism a real problem . . . it will be the people who decide who the next First Minister will be, not the DUP.”

Referring to the forthcoming Assembly elections in the North, which must take place by May at the latest, Ms O’Neill said Sinn Féin was “aiming to return as the biggest party, not for the sake of it, but to deliver change”, and articulated the party’s intention to take the position of First Minister.

“We will nominate a First Minister, a First Minister who works and delivers for all our people,” she said.

On Irish language legislation, which the UK government pledged to introduce in October if it was not brought in at Stormont, Ms O'Neill said she met the UK Northern secretary this week who "confirmed again that he is taking the steps to introduce the legislation.

“We expect these commitments to be honoured, and we will continue to hold his feet to the fire to ensure that this is delivered,” she said.

She also said there had to be an all-island approach to the climate emergency, which “does not recognise borders”.

Special Criminal Court

Earlier, the Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald defended the decision to debate a motion at the ardfheis which could end her party's long-standing opposition to the Special Criminal Court (SCC).

The non-jury criminal court tries terrorism and serious organised crime cases.

It was previously used during the Troubles to prosecute members of the Provisional IRA with a significant number jailed.

Due to the nature of its powers, the legislation underpinning it – the Offences Against the State Act – must be reviewed annually by the Dáil and Seanad.

Sinn Féin has traditionally opposed this legislation and has been persistently critical of the use of the SCC.

Ms McDonald said Sinn Féin recognised the need for a non-jury court “in exceptional circumstances”.

Ms McDonald told reporters the party was “very, very conscious of the fact that now gangland crime, as it’s called, organised crime, is wreaking havoc across society.

“We are very concerned that communities are safe, that the system works, and that those in these criminal gangs who bring real fear and bring terror to the streets, that they are held to account.

“So part and parcel of that of course is resourcing the gardaí but it’s also about a judicial and a criminal system that works.

“Within that, we are now today saying that we recognise the need, in exceptional circumstances, for the option of a non-jury court.”

Asked about antigen testing for Covid-19, Ms McDonald said it was a “good move” that the tests were now being rolled out, adding: “To make it truly accessible, I think it has to be free to people.”

She said that in the North antigen tests were sent out free to people’s homes and “we could do worse than mirror what’s happening in the six counties.”