O’Neill claims DUP ‘punishing children’ by blocking Bills over Drumcree row

First Minister Michelle O’Neill has said the DUP is blocking Sinn Féin legislation because the unionist party “called it wrong” in the Drumcree march row.

The Sinn Féin vice-president said the DUP is “punishing children” in opposing the passage of a number of Bills through the Stormont Assembly.

Relations between parties in the powersharing Executive have soured in the fallout from the Drumcree parading dispute, which has seen Ms O’Neill being interviewed by police in relation to her participation in an allegedly unlawful protest on the Garvaghy Road in Portadown in September that was held to try to block an Orange Order parade from Drumcree Church proceeding down the predominantly nationalist road.

The row has had political consequences at Stormont, with DUP deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly having stopped joint engagements with Ms O’Neill.

On Monday, the DUP said it would use a petition of concern in an attempt to block legislation around Irish-medium education proposed by a Sinn Féin MLA.

Pat Sheehan has proposed a private member’s bill to require Stormont’s Department of Education to prepare a workforce plan for Irish-medium education.

The Bill is scheduled to go through its final stage at the Assembly on Tuesday.

The petition of concern forces a cross-community vote, and requires majority support from both unionist and nationalist MLAs to pass.

Other unionist parties have indicated they will support the petition.

The move comes after Economy Minister Caoimhe Archibald confirmed her proposed overhaul of Northern Ireland’s employment law, Sinn Féin’s “top priority piece of legislation”, will not pass in this mandate as a result of being blocked by the DUP at executive level.

Ms O’Neill spoke to reporters at Stormont alongside Mr Sheehan and Danny Baker, who is bringing the Education (Holiday Meal Payments) Bill, which would support children on free school meals, and is expected to be voted against by the DUP.

The First Minister said her MLAs’ legislation would “actually make a difference to people’s lives”.

“I think the question that it begs is why? Why are the DUP blocking support for children across the board?,” she said.

“And it is about covering the fact that they are in complete chaos and in a complete mess. It’s about the fact that they have so much internal turmoil that they are choosing to punish children because of their failings, and that is not acceptable by anybody’s standards.”

Ms O’Neill said the attempts to block Bills are “about the DUP and their actions”.

“The rest of us are here because we’re trying to make people’s lives better,” she said.

“With the limitations of this place and the frustrations that we feel every day with it, we turn up and we try to make people’s lives better.

“The DUP and their antics – this is all about covering up for the fact that they completely called it wrong on the situation on the Garvaghy Road.

“They tried to support and force an Orange march down that road, and now the direct results from failing to do so, they are now punishing children, and people will really ask the question why? And only they can answer that.”

With Northern Ireland still without an agreed budget seven months into the financial year, Ms O’Neill said she remains “committed to trying to deliver” on a settlement.

“But I think there’s a danger in slipping into ‘this is about us and the DUP’,” she said.

“This is about the DUP. This is about the DUP and their blockage. This is about the DUP in complete chaos and turmoil.

“This is about a DUP who called it wrong on every big strategic issue down through the last decade.”

Alliance Party deputy leader Eóin Tennyson said the DUP move to use a petition of concern on the Irish Medium Bill was a “petty stunt intended to walk these institutions to the brink”.

He said: “My question this morning for (DUP leader) Gavin Robinson and for (Ulster Unionist leader) Jon Burrows is, is your identity so fragile that you are threatened by children being educated through the medium of Irish?

“This punishes no one except the children and young people in Irish-medium schools who have a shortage of teachers, of classroom assistants, and special educational needs support workers.

“And I would ask, what is unionism’s grand plan here?

“It is blatant sectarianism. It is wrong, and it does nothing other than add to the chaos and dysfunction in these institutions, which people outside this building are frankly sick and tired of.”