Unconscionable that Northern Ireland workers left without pay parity – McDonald

It is “unconscionable” that workers in Northern Ireland will be left “in the lurch” over pay parity demands due to a failure to restore powersharing in Northern Ireland, Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald has said.

She said there will always be “a battle a day with the Tories as regards finances” but it is more effectively pursued from within a functioning Stormont executive.

Talks between Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris and political leaders in Northern Ireland broke up on Tuesday without agreement on a restoration of the powersharing institutions, despite a new improved offer of a £3.3 billion financial package to stabilise finances in the region.

Mr Heaton-Harris also said that substantive talks with the DUP over its concerns on post-Brexit trading arrangements have concluded, although Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has insisted the negotiations will continue.

The powersharing institutions have been collapsed for almost two years as the DUP seeks further legislative assurances from the Government of Northern Ireland’s trading position within the UK.

The Northern Ireland Secretary has also faced calls to release funding to settle public sector pay claims in Northern Ireland, with multiple unions planning widespread strike action on January 18.

Mrs McDonald said it was now clear that negotiations on the Northern Ireland Protocol and the Windsor Framework over Northern Ireland’s place within the UK internal market are now over.

“So it’s over to the DUP and Jeffrey Donaldson, who, by the way, himself acknowledged some days ago, a week ago, that the tipping point had arrived, that it was now a moment for a decision, that we have this window – and we are simply asking the DUP to step through that window now, make that right decision,” she told RTE.

She added: “Because public sector workers will strike again on Friday.

“They’re looking for fair pay, pay parity.

“They’re entitled to it, the money is on the table.

“It’s unconscionable that we go into Christmas and beyond and leave those workers and others in the lurch.”

Party colleague Conor Murphy told the BBC that the new financial package on offer to a returning Stormont executive was only a “marginal improvement” on a previous offer which had been criticised by Northern Ireland parties last week.

He said: “There are some improvements but there is more work to be done in terms of improving it.

“That, as we have always argued, is better done from within an executive where you have a first and a deputy first minister and ministers all on the same script talking directly to Whitehall rather than going through a conduit of the Secretary of State.

“We have never said that holding out for this is something which should keep an executive down.”

Mr Murphy also said he would be surprised if the UK Government was not keeping the EU informed of any potential changes to the workings of the Windsor Framework.

He said: “I would be very surprised if they haven’t already done that, had unofficially had some contact with the EU on these matters.

“I would be very surprised if they were pressing forward to get this package agreed if they thought the EU were opposed to it.

“The British Government wanted this deal done yesterday and clearly they were in a time frame where they could quickly come to a conclusion with the EU and resume some preparatory work.

“These matters have to be resolved in that fashion. The American government have an interest in this, Dublin have an interest in this and I would be very surprised if people haven’t been kept informed.”