Stormont talks: DUP leader 'hopeful' of progress for return to power sharing

The DUP withdrew from the Stormont executive in February 2022

The DUP leader has said he is hopeful his party can get the progress it needs to go back into power sharing.

Sir Jeffrey Donaldson was speaking after a meeting with the head of the NI Civil Service, Jayne Brady.

He will continue to engage with the government and has made "his summer available" for further talks on the Windsor Framework, he said.

The party has insisted new legislation is needed before it will end its 18-month boycott of the executive.

The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) walked out of Stormont's power-sharing executive in February 2022 in protest over a Brexit deal which introduced new checks and restrictions on goods moving from Britain to Northern Ireland.

Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris said new legislation may be required at Westminster and the government now has "a lot more clarity" about what the DUP is seeking.

End of the road

Ms Brady's talks with the parties focused on how to run government in a future executive, in the context of a challenging budget position.

Speaking after the meeting, Sinn Féin vice-president Michelle O'Neill said this "process has come to the end of the road".

Ms O'Neill added she didn't share the secretary of state's "overly optimistic assessment" that a Stormont executive would return in the autumn.

Michelle O'Neill said the DUP needed to get over internal party wrangling and put people first

Last week Chris Heaton-Harris said he was "hopeful" about the return and believed a resolution was "getting much closer".

"I don't think there is any evidence to back that up," Ms O'Neill said.

"I hope that changes but I don't think anyone who was sitting in that meeting today is under any allusions that anything has changed in terms of the DUP's and the British government's game of chicken."

'Stalemate'

Stephen Farry described Thursday's meeting with Ms Brady as a "stock take exercise", and said discussions had gone as far as they could.

The Alliance deputy leader said the current situation was "stalemate", with no progress over the past few weeks.

Mr Farry said he was deeply worried about the future of Northern Ireland and believed excuses were being made for parties to stay out of government.

The power-sharing government at Stormont collapsed in February 2022

Ulster Unionist Party leader Doug Beattie said: "I don't think it's about getting a bigger stick to beat the DUP with; I don't think that's going to work."

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He stressed that pressure was already on the DUP to return to the executive and he hoped Mr Heaton-Harris would assist in the restoration of Stormont.

Mr Beattie said he remained optimistic about a return of the executive by the autumn.

The SDLP was not at the talks as it has confirmed it will form the official opposition.

It feels like a process which has now passed its best before date.

It served a purpose in keeping the parties engaged with civil servants in the absence of Stormont.

It also allowed preparations to be put in place for the executive's return in the face of mounting budget pressures.

But with no hint of when or if Stormont might return, these talks have "run out of steam", to quote one party source.

With no best before date set for the talks between the DUP and the government, the political drift is likely to continue for some time.

Jayne Brady, who was appointed head of the NI Civil Service in June 2021, met political leaders on Thursday morning

Ms Brady has previously warned that even if ministers are to return to an executive this year, an overspend of this year's budget was "now unavoidable".

Ms Brady outlined her position in a letter to Mr Heaton-Harris earlier this month.

She said Stormont departments have "reached the limit" of what they can do to manage budget pressures this year and the remaining gap did not stem from an "unwillingness" to act, but from a legal position.