LONDON
The controversial Northern Ireland Protocol is a consequence of Britain’s exit from the EU and it is a necessary intervention to support the peace process, Sinn Fein said Thursday, calling on parties to get the job done.
“Brexit was disastrous for Ireland, it was always going to cause the types of problems that we have seen,” Mary Lou MacDonald, leader of the Irish nationalist party, told an event in London.
Stressing that there is no time to be lost, she noted that they want to see the protocol implemented smoothly, noted MacDonald.
“Get the job done. Get the work done. The solutions are there. There is an agreement to be made. And there is no time to be lost. We want to see the protocol implemented smoothly,” she stated.
MacDonald also expressed support for European efforts to solve issues related to the protocol.
Northern Ireland Protocol
The Northern Ireland Protocol necessitates border checks on any animal and plant-based products, including frozen meat and processed meat products, before their transport to Northern Ireland, which is aligned with EU rules and regulations.
The protocol creates a de facto trade border in the Irish Sea between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.
The UK left the bloc on Jan. 31, 2020 as a result of the 2016 Brexit referendum that ended the country’s more than 40-year membership in the European club.
The agreement signed by the sides included the protocol, which practically avoided a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
The protocol has been a point of disagreement between the sides.
Government formation
Also touching on the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, the pact that ended decades of strife in Northern Ireland, which marks its 25th anniversary this year, MacDonald said that the peace process would not have been possible without an international effort, solidarity, and support from European countries as well as the US.
On the stalled establishment of a government in Northern Ireland, she pointed to the Democratic Unionist Party’s (DUP) boycott on the formation of a government, and accused the British Conservative government of responsibility.
“Sadly, they have been assisted in that regard at times by the Tory government. That’s unacceptable and unfortunate,” added MacDonald.
Touching on the cost of living crisis and health service crisis, she highlighted the urgent need for a government.
For his part, Michelle O’Neill, vice president of Sinn Fein and first minister-designate of Northern Ireland, said the DUP “punishes” people by blocking the formation of a government.
“People find it really really difficult to put food on their tables and find it very very difficult to heat their homes, and all the way the DUP are continuing to punish those people (and) are staying out of the Executive and preventing us from being able to do our jobs,” she said.
Saying that she wants to work in partnership, O’Neil underlined that she would want to bring to a system of governance to the north.
Since the latest election last May, the Irish nationalist Sinn Fein and DUP loyalists failed to reach an agreement to form a new Executive.
After winning the most seats in a historic result, Sinn Fein nominated O’Neill, its leader in Northern Ireland, as first minister, but the DUP refused to nominate a deputy and vowed not to do so until the Northern Ireland Protocol is scrapped.
