Northern Ireland’s political leaders are set to meet on Tuesday to chart the restoration of devolved government after the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) endorsed a deal to end its two-year boycott of power sharing. Ministerial posts could be filled within days following the party’s decision.
The DUP leader, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, emerged from a tense meeting of the party’s 130-member executive on Tuesday and announced that the party had accepted a deal addressing its concerns over post-Brexit trading arrangements. Donaldson said there had been a “decisive” vote in favour but did not disclose the majority. The proposals include removing restrictions on the movement of goods within the UK, with “zero checks, zero customs paperwork on goods moving within the United Kingdom”, he told BBC Radio Ulster.
The Irish government welcomed the DUP’s decision but cautioned that it had not yet seen the details of the deal between the DUP and the UK government. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said: “Obviously we’ll need to see that and be confident that it doesn’t have any negative consequences for the Windsor framework or for the Good Friday agreement.” UK Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris said the proposals would be published on Wednesday and featured a “vast array of decent improvements”.
The DUP’s endorsement is conditional on two statutory instruments at Westminster to give legislative effect to Downing Street commitments on trade and sovereignty. Heaton-Harris said London would keep its side of the bargain. Brussels and Dublin will scrutinise the deal to ensure the Windsor framework remains intact, while Conservative MPs will examine it for any sign of weakened ability to diverge from EU rules.
Sinn Féin, which overtook the DUP as the biggest party in the 2022 assembly election, is poised to take the first minister post for the first time under its deputy leader, Michelle O’Neill – a historic precedent. A DUP member will be eligible to be deputy first minister, a role with equal power but less prestige. However, hardline unionists, including the Traditional Unionist Voice and loyalist Jamie Bryson, denounced the deal as a sellout that would damage the union.
The DUP’s decision marks a victory for Donaldson, who faced down internal and external hardliners. Northern Ireland’s main political parties are relieved to return to Stormont, but there is no jubilation amid a fiscal crisis, crumbling public services and strikes. Civil servants have run the region on autopilot, and both Sinn Féin and the DUP retain the power to collapse the executive.
