Stormont’s First Minister has insisted that recent disagreements and tensions within the powersharing executive are not evidence of instability.
Michelle O’Neill said there would always be differences of opinion in a mandatory coalition arrangement involving four parties with often opposing positions, but stressed there were “lots of things” that unite the current administration.
In an upbeat assessment of the devolved executive’s potential ahead of the return of the Northern Ireland Assembly on Monday, Ms O’Neill also described her working relationship with DUP deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly as “very good”.
Her comments in an interview with the PA news agency come after a summer that saw the coalition’s two lead partners – Sinn Fein and the DUP – at odds on some high-profile issues.
In June, Ms O’Neill called on DUP communities minister Gordon Lyons to resign for comments he made related to emergency accommodation for migrants fleeing racist attacks in Ballymena.
Mr Lyons refused to quit over a social media post that referred to a leisure centre in Larne housing migrants whose homes had been targeted in anti-immigration disorder in Ballymena. He was accused of poor judgment after the centre was attacked hours later and set alight.
Accusing rivals of trying to score political points, the minister denied he was responsible for identifying the location publicly, pointing out that that information had already been publicised by others.
In a separate development later in the summer, Mr Lyons joined an ongoing legal action against Sinn Fein Infrastructure minister Liz Kimmins over her decision to install Irish language signs at Belfast’s Grand Central Station.
Asked how she would characterise relations as the administration returned for a new Assembly term, Ms O’Neill sought to downplay the tensions.
“First thing I’d say is that we’re a four-party coalition, it’s always going to be challenging, because we all have different views on certain things,” she said.
“There’s a lot of things that actually unite us. There’s a lot of things where we actually can always find our common ground. But there’s always going to be areas where we’re going to have to navigate tricky ground. So, there’ll be times whenever we don’t agree, but I think that unfortunately here sometimes whenever parties disagree, it nearly is presented in a way as the whole thing’s going to collapse. That’s not the case.
“I genuinely believe everybody’s there because they want to try to deliver as best we can for all the people that we represent. But, yes, it’s going to be tricky to navigate and at times there’ll be differences of view.
“You’re diametrically opposed. You know ourselves and the DUP, for example, are diametrically opposed parties, but for myself and Emma, the work that we have to do is to deliver upon the Programme for Government commitments that we’ve made, find that common ground and navigate the difficulties, and when we disagree, try to disagree as well as we possibly can.
“Will our parties always agree on things? You know that’s not going to be the case. I think we all knew that probably would always be the case, but we just need to navigate those challenges and difficulties, and find ways to ensure the Executive functions, that we deliver upon our commitments that we’ve made to the public, and we can stand over that whenever we go out to talk to the public.”
Ms O’Neill spoke to PA shortly after returning from a joint visit with Ms Little-Pengelly to Craigavon Integrated College in Co Armagh to talk about the Executive’s strategy to tackle violence against women and girls.
The First Minister said that was an example of where the two leaders shared a common goal.
“We have a very good working relationship,” she said. “Our job is to be tasked to work together, to lead that executive, to try and bring people together around the areas we all identified as our priorities, whether that be Lough Neagh (pollution issues), whether that be waiting lists in the health service, whether that be transformation of public services, child care, all the other issues that we know that we need to deal with.
“So, the real question is how can we work together? As opposed to: do you get on? Are you buddies? Do you text each other? That question actually sometimes is constantly asked of us. Where really I think the real question is: are you delivering? Are you working together for the greater good? Are you delivering on your Programme for Government commitments?”
The summer has seen several females in Northern Ireland lose their lives in violent circumstances. It has also witnessed incidents of racist and sectarian intimidation in multiple areas.
Ms O’Neill insisted the strategy to end violence against women and girls was making progress to challenge misogynistic attitudes in society while Executive ministers last week issued a joint statement calling for a zero-tolerance approach to the racist and sectarian attacks.
The First Minister acknowledged ministers had more work to do to tackle those problems as she expressed concern that the wave of bad headlines of recent months was creating a negative impression of Northern Ireland internationally.
However, she added: “We are a great place to work, live and invest, despite all of the challenges that we have.
“I want to promote that good message, that positive message, particularly as we move now to the 30th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement (in 2028) and our society has been so transformed with a lot to be thankful for.
“I want to promote a good message about who we are and I believe that actually would be more reflective of our society, not those pockets of hate that we see, or the sectarianism or the racism that we see – that’s not reflective of wider society.”
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