If there are to be any chats over cups of tea between Taoiseach Micheál Martin and British prime minister Andy Burnham this week, they might not be as carefree as those recently seen on social media.
The decision of the Parade’s Commission to allow Orangemen parade down the nationalist Garvaghy Road for the first time in more than 28 years has riven the North.
After a weekend of fraught legal actions in Belfast, the decision to permit a parade at 8am on Sunday was upheld – only for hundreds of protesters to take to the road in an attempt to prevent it going ahead.
“Incomprehensible and wrong” was how the Taoiseach described the original decision, which caught many by surprise. Martin noted that “most people anticipated that that situation would remain the same”.
READ MORE
An inquest into how permission was granted is being demanded by nationalists – with Minister for Justice Helen McEntee saying she was conscious of the “fears and concerns” of the Garvaghy Road residents.
Unionists, meanwhile, demanded the Orangemen be permitted down the road and the “unlawful” protest be abandoned.
Sinn Féin TDs and MPs joined their party leader Mary Lou McDonald and First Minister Michelle O’Neill on the road throughout the day.
DUP leader Gavin Robinson accused them of breaking the law – and many people are wondering how the powersharing executive in Stormont survives all of this.
New Northern Secretary Chris Bryant certainly seems to have been surprised at the turn of events and had to cut short his participation in the British Labour Party conference.
Bryant spent last evening meeting the five main parties in Hillsborough Castle.
The SDLP and Sinn Féin have called on him to “step in” and bring the crisis to an end by again banning the parade – something he says is only possible following a request from the Police Service of Northern Ireland.
The meetings failed to produce the sort of compromise the British government had been asking for – and Bryant was due to meet residents today.
As of this morning, a small group of Orangemen remained in place at Drumcree Church. Protesters on Garvaghy Road had left.
Powersharing looks precarious.
Cost of living likely to dominate budget build-up
The Government is most certainly attuned to the possibility of blocked roads in the Republic as it continues with the budget preparations.
The fuel protests of April have the potential to return, what with the fierce dear price of diesel these days.
More than 1,000 people attended a meeting in Westmeath yesterday to demand a reduction in the cost of fuel and taxes. They warned they would be “hitting the road” again should the Government fail to oblige.
As well as some of the leading figures from April’s protest, members of Aontú, Independent Ireland, Sinn Féin and Fine Gael were in the room.
Aontú’s Peadar Tóibín, Fine Gael TD Micheál Carrigy and Senator Paraic Brady were among those who addressed the gathering.
The Minister for Finance will have a fairly clear idea of what is being demanded – having met the leaders of the protests at a Fine Gael function last Friday. The inventive group snapped up tickets for a party event in Navan, Co Meath, and proceeded to hand over a document to Simon Harris.
Minister for Social Protection Dara Calleary told RTÉ over the weekend there would be targeted measures contained in next week’s announcement, but that the Government couldn’t possibly insulate everyone from the rising cost of living.
The organisers of April’s disruption appear unhappy with all manner of things, with carbon tax being a major bugbear.
Given that money is will be needed to pay for things such as a potential public sector pay deal and promised income tax measures, the scope for other measures starts to narrow.
In a sign, perhaps, of the pips beginning to squeak, there are suggestions the proposed increase to the minimum wage might be in trouble. Sources are pondering the possibility the Government may not greenlight the 79 cent per hour increase for about 200,000 workers.
The Low Pay Commission recommendation made over the summer is considered, by some around the Cabinet table, as a little on the high side and could fuel inflation. The prospect arises that such an increase could be rejected for the first time ever.
The cost of living is likely to dominate Dáil business this week.
Harris takes questions in the chamber on Tuesday, and Sinn Féin has a motion on public transport fare increases on the same day and the Social Democrats plan to table one calling for a windfall tax on energy companies on Wednesday.
