Michelle O’Neill: Sinn Fein won’t ‘negotiate down’ from DUP deal

The party vice-president said she would not “negotiate down” from the proposals on the table when the last substantive talks process to restore devolved government imploded on Valentine’s Day 2018.

In an interview to mark the second anniversary of the death of former Sinn Fein deputy first minister Martin McGuinness, Mrs O’Neill also accused the DUP of absenting itself from efforts to rebuild the institutions, claiming the party had instead focused all its “bandwidth” on Brexit.

Talks broke down last February in acrimony amid claim and counter claim on what had actually been agreed.

Sinn Fein said DUP leader Arlene Foster had agreed a draft deal to re-enter devolved government, a claim Mrs Foster emphatically denied.

Leaked copies of papers exchanged between the parties indicated discussions included a three-stranded legislative approach to deal with the logjam over Irish language protections.

“We had a deal back in February which was negotiated painstakingly over a period of time, the DUP walked away from that deal,” Mrs O’Neill told the Press Association.

“Clearly we are not going to negotiate down from a position that you achieved last February.

“But the issues that caused the collapse remain, the issues in terms of the delivery of rights remain, we need to see those delivered in order for it to be successful.

“I want any new Executive to be built on strong foundations.”

Mrs O’Neill said her party was prepared to countenance changes to the controversial petition of concern but she would not allow it to be “binned”.

In response to Mrs O’Neill’s claims DUP MP Emma Little Pengelly said: “Michelle O’Neill could be a minister exercising power tomorrow but she has chosen to boycott Stormont and her MPs boycott the House of Commons at a time when every single vote matters.”