Mary Lou McDonald issues fresh demands for the DUP to drop its boycott of Stormont

Ms McDonald said the Irish Government needs to bring a sense of pace, urgency and purpose to getting the Assembly and Executive “back up and running”.

“This is a collective effort and success has always been when we’ve been working together,” she said ahead of a meeting with taoiseach Leo Varadkar.

Ms McDonald said Sinn Fein expects to have “common cause” with Mr Varadkar in making a return to power-sharing happen “in time for the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement”.

Ms McDonald said while it is “reasonable” for the DUP to reflect on the Windsor Framework, she added what is “not reasonable is to delay”.

“We too need clarity and certain clarifications, but we are absolutely convinced we can all do that work whilst having the Assembly and the Executive running,” she said

Also attending the meeting, Sinn Fein leader in Northern Ireland Michelle O’Neill said there “shouldn’t be any more delays”.

“We need to be in the Executive today. The DUP walked away,” she said.

Meanwhile, the UK government appears to have abandoned plans that would have required non-Irish nationals permanently resident in Ireland to apply for a visa waiver to travel to Northern Ireland.

The provision had been opposed by the Irish government, which had warned that it could disrupt the lives of people across the island who are not Irish or British citizens, particularly those living along the border.

The UK Government had said the new requirement would be smooth, light-touch, and would aim to “strengthen our border”.

However, in an update published by the UK Government on Thursday, it said that among those who will not need to apply for such authorisation include those legally resident in Ireland.

It added: “Those legally resident in Ireland will not need an ETA when travelling to the UK from within the Common Travel Area.”