SINN Fein’s Stormont leader has said her party has no interest in a “Mickey Mouse” shadow Assembly to scrutinise decisions taken in Westminster.
Michelle O’Neill, right, said the proposal being considered by the UK Government would deliver nothing and instead represent an abandonment of the terms of the Good Friday peace agreement.
In the ongoing absence of devolution, the Democratic Unionists have voiced support for a form of shadow assembly that would give locally elected politicians a role in scrutinising decisions taken in Westminster. But O’Neill dismissed the notion outright in Belfast yesterday.
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“I think we would be better focusing our efforts on where they should be, which is actually getting the institutions up and running again,” she said. “Any attempt to scramble together some sort of ‘assembly light’, a scrutiny role is not the direction. It’s clearly an abandonment of the Good Friday Agreement – it is not going to deliver what we need to deliver for citizens, which is legislation and rights.
“We have no interest in scrutinising direct rule ministers – what we want is the institutions up and running again, what we want is the executive up and running again and what we want is to be setting a programme for government and setting a budget, not focusing our efforts on some Mickey Mouse affair.”
Power sharing imploded last January amid a row over a botched green energy scheme, but the rift has since widened to take in disputes over issues such as the Irish language, same-sex marriage and how to handle the legacy of the Troubles.
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