Sinn Féin will work to reform Northern Ireland’s powersharing institutions, the First Minister has pledged.
Delivering a keynote address on the opening evening of the Sinn Féin Ardfheis in Belfast on Friday, Michelle O’Neill said: “We will work to reform the institutions, because they have to work for the people. I am giving a commitment that we will look at proposals to reform the institutions. We will work with all other progressive parties to deliver the change that is needed to end the blockage on progress.”
There have been long-standing calls, particularly from the Alliance Party and SDLP, to reform the Northern political institutions in order to make the Assembly more stable and less prone to collapse, and to prevent the abuse of Assembly mechanisms.
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In December, an Assembly majority backed an Alliance motion calling for reform of the institutions which was supported by Sinn Féin and the SDLP, but opposed by the DUP and UUP.
In her speech, O’Neill defended her party’s record in the Northern Executive and blamed the DUP, saying, “progress … has been slower than I would have liked”. Moreover, she understood people’s frustration.
“However, despite my best efforts” and those of Sinn Féin Ministers, “there are quite simply some who do not want to work together”, she said.
“The DUP want to turn the clock back. They are attempting to block and delay progress on issues that would make a real difference to people’s lives,” she said.
The First Minister said the DUP “want to drag society backwards … continue to deny people their rights … attack everything to do with Irish national identity … yearn for the days of unionist misrule. But here is the thing: those days are gone.”
O’Neill also criticised the British government at Westminster, which she said, “continues to fail our people”.
“While the name on the desk may change, whether it’s Johnson, Truss, Sunak, Starmer or even, God forbid, Farage, one constant will always remain, their contempt and their complete disregard for people and communities here,” she said.
The First Minister described as “completely and utterly shameful” the “complete refusal of this British government to cut fuel tax on heating oil, petrol and diesel, or do anything of substance to help people during the cost-of-living crisis”.
She reiterated Sinn Féin’s commitment to upgrading the A5 and to rebuilding Belfast GAA ground Casement Park.
Referencing local elections in Scotland and Wales in May, she sent “solidarity” to the SNP and Plaid Cymru. She said that “for the very first time in history, there is a possibility that there could be three nationalist, pro-independence and pro-self-determination first ministers.
“What does that tell us? The people in Ireland, in Scotland and in Wales, now more than ever, are asserting their desire for independence. Their union is cracking at the seams.”
In a speech later on Friday, which focused on the cost-of-living crisis, Sinn Féin finance spokesman Pearse Doherty called on the Government to introduce an emergency budget to help “the hard-working people who are struggling to get by”, saying they do not “understand what it means to choose between heating and eating”.
