{"id":1123247,"date":"2026-08-01T02:03:53","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T02:03:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1123247\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T02:03:53","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T02:03:53","slug":"sinn-fein-sounds-warning-over-future-of-powersharing-amid-dup-behaviour-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1123247\/","title":{"rendered":"Sinn Fein sounds warning over future of powersharing amid \u2018DUP behaviour\u2019 \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sinn F\u00e9in has sounded a warning on the future of powersharing in Northern Ireland, claiming the \u201cbehaviour of the DUP\u201d is \u201cfrustrating\u201d delivery.<\/p>\n

Senator Conor Murphy claimed powersharing is in a \u201cprecarious place\u201d, and that the DUP \u201cdon\u2019t have the political will to make it work\u201d.<\/p>\n

He insisted his party is \u201cwedded to powersharing\u201d, but that the DUP \u201cis there because they have to be there\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe DUP have demonstrated that they don\u2019t have a political will to make the Assembly work and that poses bigger questions for powersharing \u2026 the institutions are in a precarious place,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Former<\/a>\"Police<\/a><\/p>\n

DUP leader Gavin Robinson hit back saying he and his colleagues are \u201ccommitted to not only the institutions but delivering for the people we are proud to represent\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"DUPDUP leader Gavin Robinson (Liam McBurney\/PA) <\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t shy away from the challenges, and nor will we be goaded by that sort of commentary, we\u2019re here today and we\u2019re here every day willing to step up and stand up for the people of Northern Ireland,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Alliance leader Naomi Long urged all sides to \u201ctake a step back, take a deep breath and recognise elections will come and go, and we will still have to do business with each other, but focus for the next nine months on what we can actually achieve\u201d.<\/p>\n

The statements came as parties visited Hillsborough Castle for meetings with the new Secretary of State Chris Bryant.<\/p>\n

Sir Chris arrived in the region for his first official visit in post on Friday, and visited defence systems plant Thales in east Belfast ahead of meeting the Stormont parties later.<\/p>\n

Speaking about his new role, Mr Bryant said he is looking forward to the challenge and said he can be \u201can honest and fair broker between people who don\u2019t agree on everything\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"NorthernNorthern Ireland Secretary Sir Chris Bryant and NIO Minister Sarah Owen (Oliver McVeigh\/PA) <\/p>\n

However he said he was \u201cnervous\u201d about the prospect of \u201cwalking on eggshells\u201d, telling media in Belfast: \u201cI think if everybody spends all their time wondering about whether an individual politician is going to say the right thing or put it in the right way, then we\u2019ve all lost.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ministers across the four-party Executive have consistently made the point that they need more money from the Treasury to address a funding crisis facing public services in the region.<\/p>\n

From Saturday, just 95% of last year\u2019s funding will be available to spend after the Executive passes a deadline to agree a budget under public finance laws.<\/p>\n

Stormont Opposition leader Matthew O\u2019Toole had sounded alarms about this deadline, pressing Executive ministers to act to avoid facing this effective funding cut.<\/p>\n

\"StormontStormont Finance Minister John O\u2019Dowd (Liam McBurney\/PA) <\/p>\n

Earlier Stormont Finance Minister John O\u2019Dowd said it is \u201cdecision time\u201d for the UK Government to properly fund Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Dowd said while Mr Bryant and Chancellor John Healey have recently come into post, their officials are aware of the issues in the region.<\/p>\n

Responding to those comments, Mr Bryant said he is not expecting any decisions to be made today around the Stormont budget.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sinn F\u00e9in has sounded a warning on the future of powersharing in Northern Ireland, claiming the \u201cbehaviour of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1123248,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5011],"tags":[1144,285,16,7913,15],"class_list":["post-1123247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-northern-ireland","tag-northern-ireland","tag-politics","tag-uk","tag-ulster","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117017804279624927","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1123247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1123247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1123247\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1123248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1123247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1123247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1123247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}