First Minister Michelle O’Neill has denied there is a crisis in the powersharing government at Stormont.
The Sinn Fein vice-president had called on Communities Minister Gordon Lyons of the DUP to resign over a social media post he shared shortly before Larne Leisure Centre was attacked.
Northern Ireland has been rocked by rioting over the past week, with the worst damage in Ballymena following protests over an alleged sexual assault on a young girl in the Co Antrim town at the weekend.
Larne Leisure Centre was attacked on Wednesday night by masked youths who appeared to believe people who had fled the disorder and attacks on houses in Ballymena were being accommodated at the facility.
Mr Lyons has resisted calls for his resignation and said he would “strongly hit back at any notion” that he had publicly revealed the facility was being used to house immigrant families who had been affected by violence in Ballymena.
Ms O’Neill urged Mr Lyons to consider his position, while Secretary of State Hilary Benn said the East Antrim MLA should reconsider his words.
Speaking at a meeting of the British-Irish Council in Newcastle, Co Down on Friday, Ms O’Neill said she stood by her comments but denied there was a crisis at Stormont.
She said the whole Executive is united against the disorder.
“I’ve said what I’ve said in terms of the minister’s Facebook posts, in particular, and his approach but look, that doesn’t mean there’s a crisis.
“As an Executive, we have a job to do, and I am committed to continue to lead in that Executive, to work with Executive colleagues and do everything we can, particularly to get us through this period that we’re in now, because four nights in a row what we’ve seen on our streets is totally unacceptable, and I hope that we all continue to stand strong in terms of facing it down and saying no to racism in our society.”
She added: “We have a unique system of governance, there are four parties around the Executive table, we don’t always have to agree on everything.
“We can have differences at different time and we can say we don’t agree with the ministers’ approach and still get on with governance, that’s what I am determined to do.”
Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly said Mr Lyons said “very clearly that his intention was to defuse tensions in the local area due to a significant amount of rumour going around”.
“The local council had already confirmed that the centre had been used in that way but was indicating that the families were not in that centre,” she said.
“I think that that was a very clear attempt to stop the centre being attacked by some of those disgraceful elements that wanted to do so.”
She added: “The DUP position has been completely unambiguous. Gordon Lyons’ position has been unambiguous, my position has been unambiguous. This violence is wrong and needs to stop, and we have said that consistently throughout this.”
Ms Little-Pengelly said she was disappointed that the issue was a “distraction throughout yesterday from our very clear and unified message”.
“But nevertheless we will continue to work because I believe that the people of Northern Ireland demand and deserve better from their politicians in terms of us making sure it is not about petty political point scoring or silly games.
“This is about doing everything we can to stop violence, stop disorder and stand with the people of Northern Ireland no matter where they are.”
