Stormont crisis talks: hopes of progress fade as divisions flare

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jun/02/stormont-crisis-talks-northern-ireland-sinn-fein-uk

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Hopes of progress at a meeting to avert a crisis in Northern Ireland’s public finances and power-sharing agreement have receded further after the British government and Sinn Féin issued robust warnings reaffirming opposing positions.

The round table talks in Belfast on Tuesday afternoon, involving the UK and Irish governments and leaders of Northern Ireland’s five main political parties, is being convened to try to find a way to save the faltering Stormont house agreement they signed up to last year.

The deal has been thrown into jeopardy, and with it the future of the power-sharing administration, by a bitter row over implementing changes to the welfare system in Northern Ireland, which has left ministers facing a budgetary hole estimated at £600m.

Related: London and Dublin urge NI to review agreement to break welfare impasse

Sinn Féin and the UK government are on opposing sides of the welfare argument, and respective public statements on Tuesday morning indicated neither was in the mood for compromise.

Sinn Féin and the smaller nationalist party in the Northern Ireland executive, the SDLP, have vetoed the introduction of the Westminster coalition government’s changes to the benefits system, claiming they will hit the most vulnerable in society.

Related: Northern Ireland power sharing in crisis as welfare bill fails

But the government insists the changes are necessary, and must be introduced if the rest of the Stormont house agreement is to be implemented.

In a thinly veiled broadside aimed at Sinn Féin and the SDLP, the Northern Ireland secretary said “deficit deniers” who think they could “simply go on spending money without any regard to the consequences” represented a “real danger” to public services.

In an article in the Irish News newspaper, Theresa Villiers said if some did not want Northern Ireland to be subject to national spending settlements then the alternative would be “complete fiscal autonomy”.

“And I have one question for them,” she said. “Which taxes would rise, and by how much, to cover the transfer of money each year to Northern Ireland from the UK Treasury?”

She said it was time for Northern Ireland’s leaders to make a choice. “The current deadlock over welfare reform not only threatens the Stormont house agreement but could also put the devolved institutions at risk,” she said. “No one should be in any doubt about the seriousness of the situation.”

Sinn Féin’s response indicated a meeting of minds was a long way off. The party’s Conor Murphy accused Villiers of being in “denial”. “The present difficulties facing the executive are the direct consequence of Tory austerity cuts and their attempts to impose further welfare cuts on the most vulnerable in society,” he said.

“The British government is planning another £25bn of cuts to public services and welfare yet Theresa Villiers continues to refuse to spell out the impact of these cuts on the people of the north. She is clearly in denial of the role of her government’s austerity policies in provoking the crisis and there is no indication she is serious about addressing the key issues.

“The Tories have no mandate in the north for their cuts agenda. The local parties need to make it clear that Tory cuts to public services and the welfare state are unacceptable.”

The local parties need to make it clear that Tory cuts to public services and the welfare state are unacceptable

The fate of the Stormont house agreement, which was hailed as resolving a range of disputes destabilising power-sharing in Belfast, was thrown into uncertainty after an attempt to introduce welfare reforms fell in the assembly last week.

Introducing the last Conservative/Liberal Democrat government’s amended benefits system in Northern Ireland, after a two-year delay, was a key plank of the deal.

The defeat of the welfare reform bill, due to a Sinn Féin/SDLP veto, has endangered other elements of the accord, such as the devolution of corporation tax powers, a major civil service redundancy scheme and new structures to address the legacy of the Troubles.

But it has also left the executive facing a reputed £600m funding gap this financial year. That shortfall is in part a consequence of Treasury penalties for non-implementation of welfare changes running at just under £10m per month.

Tuesday’s crucial meeting will be held at Stormont House. Villiers and Ireland’s foreign minister, Charlie Flanagan, are expected to attend.

Peter Robinson, the Democratic Unionist party first minister, will also be in attendance, along with the leaders of the other executive parties, only a week after he was admitted to hospital with heart problems.

While initially backing the welfare element of the Stormont house agreement, Sinn Féin withdrew its support three months later, claiming that executive-funded top-up schemes to protect claimants losing out under the new benefits system were not as comprehensive as it believed were envisaged in December’s negotiations.

The DUP has accused its main partners in the Northern Ireland government of welching on the deal.