DUP chairman says 'intransigent' Coveney is no help in smashing impasse over Northern Ireland Protocol

Lord Morrow was speaking to the News Letter on Wednesday as Simon Coveney was in Northern Ireland to meet all of the five main parties except the DUP.

Mr Coveney’s visit today came against the backdrop of two key events: the ongoing progress of the Protocol Bill through Parliament, and the UK government’s pledge to set a date for another Assembly election if Stormont isn’t up-and-running by October 28.

The DUP said the fact it didn’t meet foreign minister Coveney today was purely down to scheduling, with party leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson being tied up in London at Prime Minister’s Questions.

Mr Coveney said today: “I’m speaking to the Secretary of State on quite a regular basis.

"We’re going to be working together quite intensively over the next few weeks, to try to create the conditions to allow all parties in Northern Ireland to believe they can move back into the space to establish an executive and a functioning Assembly.

“We’re looking for a breakthrough on some of these issues in the next few weeks, so that we can have the basis for a step forward on some of the contentious issues before the end of October. It is time to agree common ground so we can put issues to bed.”

The DUP has been adamant that it will not re-enter Stormont until the Protocol has been dealt with to its satisfaction.

Whilst there are ministers in charge of Stormont’s departments, there is no first or deputy first minister – and hence no official leadership of the government – due to the DUP boycott.

Under the 1998 Northern Ireland Act, all Stormont ministers’ terms in office will run out on October 28.

At that point, the Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris will have to set a timetable for another Assembly election, barely six months after the last one.

At the start of this month Mr Heaton-Harris told the BBC he is “100% committed" to sticking with this plan.

In response to foreign minister Coveney’s latest comments about seeking a breakthrough by then, Lord Morrow told the News Letter tonight: “And what’s he doing to assist that?

"I think Coveney is digging in his heels, saying the Protocol must stay, so I don’t think he’s any assistance in moving things forward.

"To date, [Dublin has been] totally unhelpful.

"They’ve taken a very intransigent position, and think there’s only one constituency of people that has to be satisfied, and it’s certainly not the unionists of Northern Ireland.

"He’s been intransigent – and that’s about the best you can say of him.”

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Central to unionist hopes for demolishing the Irish Sea border is the Protocol Bill.

It would give the UK government the power to basically ignore bits of its Brexit treaty with the EU which it does not like, though its opponents insist the only viable way to get a deal is via UK-EU negotiations (despite both the EU and Irish government saying that no renegotiation of the Protocol is possible).

First unveiled on June 13, after a mammoth debate of almost seven hours on Tuesday night, the Protocol Bi ll was waved through its second reading in the House of Lords without a vote.

In addition, two amendments which had been mooted - both opposing the motion and seeking to delay the bill - were never ultimately voted on (though the authors of the motions, Tory Lord Cormack and Labour’s Baroness Chapman, may resurrect them during the bill’s next stage).

The next step is for the bill to be heard in a "committee of the whole house".

Even though this is called a "committee", what it actually means is that it will be set before the entire House of Lords' chamber once again for debate.

But rather than debating the general thrust of the bill, it is expected this stage will involve a line-by-line examination of its contents - something which can take several days.

This stage has yet to be scheduled, but it usually comes about a fortnight after the second reading.

All of this means it looks unlikely the bill will become law before October 28.

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