Michelle O’Neill asks US officials to focus on restoration in Sunak talks

She said the US administration has been a "steadfast supporter" of the Good Friday Agreement, particularly in the context of Brexit. Mr Sunak is due to visit the US this week.

Speaking to RTE radio, Ms O'Neill said: "It was really important for me to be here to ensure that the American administration continues to stand firm in terms of the Brexit debacle, stand firm in defence of the Good Friday Agreement, and their intervention (has) always been so effective. "So what I want from the US administration this week is that they will impress upon the British Prime Minister, who will visit I think over the course the next couple of days, that their focus needs to be on the restoration of the executive in the north."

Asked about the view that the Democratic Unionist Party is waiting for the passage of the Internal Markets Bill, Ms O'Neill said this was not "good enough". "I don't think it's acceptable that whilst the DUP are in some sort of battle with the British Government that the public are left being penalised and punished by this.

"Because we now have austerity budgets being decided upon by unelected people who don't have a mandate in the north of Ireland and Tories are setting the budgets for public services in the north and that's totally not acceptable. "So the public are being punished for the stand-off that the DUP have with the British Government."

She said the British Government needs to prioritise restoration. "They say they're prepared to legislate to give the DUP some sort of security around trade - however, they can't legislate to do anything that in any way undermines the Good Friday Agreement or the 1998 act.

"So what I want for this trip that the focus is back on that the two governments - the Irish Government and the British Government - need to be working in tandem, hand-in-hand in terms of a plan to restore the executive."