Sinn Fein’s Michelle O’Neill to accuse DUP of punishing the publicon November 5, 2022 at 6:33 am

Sinn Féin deputy leader Michelle O’Neill will say the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) is using the NI Protocol as “cover not to enter power-sharing” when her party holds its ard fheis (annual conference) later.

Sinn Féin became the largest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly for the first time after May’s election.

This entitled Ms O’Neill to be first minister.

But the DUP’s refusal to join an executive prevented her from doing so.

Ms O’Neill is expected to say the DUP is punishing the public by holding back power-sharing at Stormont.

She will tell her party conference that the DUP’s real reason for not forming an executive is that an Irish nationalist would be first minister.

Sinn Féin members will gather in Dublin for the party’s conference.

Its leader Mary Lou McDonald is due to give the keynote speech in the evening.

Sinn Féin is the largest opposition party in the Republic of Ireland, where recent polls have pointed to rising support.

Until February, Ms O’Neill had been Stormont’s deputy first minister, but when the DUP removed Paul Givan as first minister from the power-sharing executive in protest over the Northern Ireland Protocol, that meant Ms O’Neill could not remain in office either.

Sinn Féin’s conference takes place at a time when the party has much to be confident about.

But while it is now in pole position at Stormont, Michelle O’Neill has yet to spend a second in the first minister’s chair.

That could be to the party’s benefit when it comes to attracting voters in the event another assembly election is called.

But for now, the Northern Ireland secretary doesn’t appear inclined to do that and it’s not clear what Stormont’s future holds.

Expect to hear from the leadership about what it believes should be on the table if the assembly remains mothballed, including calling for Irish unity plans to be ramped up.

Her party won 27 seats in May’s assembly election, with the DUP securing 25.

Sinn Féin has repeatedly called for an executive to be restored, saying the onus was on the DUP to “end its boycott”.

Ms O’Neill will accuse the DUP and Conservative Party of bringing chaos and dysfunction into Belfast and London.

She is also expected to criticise the Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris over his indecision around calling another Stormont election.

And she is expected to call for his statement to the House of Commons next week to be definitive as “drip feeding is fuelling instability and uncertainty”.

The Sinn Féin deputy leader will also call on London and Brussels to “propel the protocol talks” and demonstrate will to find a solution.

You can watch Mary Lou McDonald’s leader’s speech this evening on the BBC News NI website from 18:30 GMT.