DUBLIN’S minister for foreign affairs believes there is evidence of a ‘new approach’ within the Stormont executive despite a significant deterioration in relations last week amid the row over plans to extend coronavirus restrictions.
Simon Coveney said he was concerned about the fallout from the disagreement between the DUP and the executive’s four other parties but thinks it would unhelpful for a “politician from Dublin to be lecturing” his counterparts in the north.
Alongside the then Secretary of State Julian Smith, the Fine Gael deputy leader helped broker January’s New Decade New Approach deal that led to the restoration of the devolved institutions after a three year gap.
He told The Irish News that the rancour and recrimination that characterised the past week’s events at Stormont needed to be “seen in the context of the pressures Covid is applying on policy makers, on businesses and on the relationships between political parties”.
“The concern that many of the senior politicians expressed at the end of last week in terms of the tension and disagreement is of course a worry but I am confident they will find a way of working together again on these different issues,” he said.
Mr Coveney said the Dublin government would face a similar choice on December 1 when its current coronavirus restrictions expire.
He said the two administrations would benefit from sharing their experiences of the pandemic.
“We are very anxious to share our successes and failures linked to Covid, so we on the island can try and learn from one another,” the minister said.
