Northern Ireland: a shirking of responsibility
Prospect of current stalemate persisting into next year is a dismal one
The UK’s Northern Ireland Secretary of State, James Brokenshire, speaking to media outside Stormont House in Belfast on Wednesday. Photograph: Peter Morrisson/Reuters
The latest collapse of the talks designed to facilitate a restoration of the powersharing institutions in Northern Ireland is deeply depressing. It raises the question of whether the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and Sinn Féin are more interested in getting the better of each other than in representing the people they were elected to serve.
It is time that Northern Secretary James Brokenshire acted on his earlier threat to stop paying the members of the Assembly while they remain in dereliction of their duty. Eight months after the last Assembly elections, there is no justification for the continuation of salaries for politicians and their staff. It has most certainly not acted as an incentive to compromise.