Finucane warns Donaldson of risks of ‘prevarication’ on NI funding talks

The Government has offered the lump sum to settle outstanding public sector pay demands and a new fiscal floor for Northern Ireland, but it is dependent on a restored powersharing administration in Belfast.

Northern Ireland’s institutions require the largest unionist and nationalist parties to share power but the Stormont Assembly and Executive have been effectively collapsed for almost two years amid DUP protest action over unionist concerns around post-Brexit trading arrangements.

On Saturday, DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson told party members the Government needs to provide “much more” in its offer for Northern Ireland.

Sir Jeffrey told members those negotiations are separate from the ongoing talks with Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris on the region’s public finances.

Speaking to the BBC’s Sunday Politics Northern Ireland, Mr Finucane said it was time for the DUP to join with other parties and “seize the moment” to return to the Executive.

“It is clear this week there has been momentum. It is clear that the time is now for Jeffrey Donaldson not to waste the momentum, not to waste the opportunity that is present.”

He added: “If he prevaricates and allows this to drift then that will be to the detriment of everyone in this society as we face the pain of more and more underfunding.”

Mr Finucane said there was an “absence of a reason” why the Assembly and Executive cannot be returned, adding: “There is a world outside of the DUP.”

Alliance party finance spokesman Eoin Tennyson said the public had been “more than patient” with the DUP as he called on the party to return to powersharing.

“They (the public) have been looking into yet another Christmas with uncertainty about their pay awards. They’re languishing on waiting lists. They can’t get their children adequate support in schools.”

UUP leader Doug Beattie said his party’s leadership is “intent on going back into Executive”.

Mr Beattie said he was waiting to see the final make-up of the financial package for the region, how the Executive may be reformed and any programme for government.

Asked if it was his personal opinion that the UUP should not return to the Executive, Mr Beattie said that is not where the party stands and rejected an allegation that the party’s MLAs were split five to four on the matter.

SDLP MLA for South Belfast Matthew O’Toole told the same programme that the party will be in opposition following the results of the election: “If we are there by ourselves, we will do the job and look forward to doing the job. If other parties wish to join us, I look forward to working constructively and actively with them.”

TUV leader Jim Allister said the DUP has no mandate to return to the Executive if they are returning to “implement the union-dismantling protocol”.

“That is why the Government is so desperate to get the DUP back so that they can cement the protocol by unionist implementation,” he said.