RELATIONS between the first and deputy first minister appeared deeply strained last night following clashes in the aftermath of agreeing the executive's latest lockdown measures.
While ministers decided unanimously on Thursday to impose six-weeks of measures beginning on St Stephen's Day, tensions between Arlene Foster and Michelle O'Neill bubbled to the surface yesterday.
Ms O'Neill was the only one the two leaders to announce the lockdown measures to the public on Thursday.
In what at times sounded like a rerun of the row around Bobby Storey's funeral six months ago, the DUP leader claimed a drop in public compliance with coronavirus restrictions was triggered by senior Sinn Féin figures' attendance at the funeral of the IRA veteran in June.
Both Mrs Foster and Ms O'Neill yesterday took part in a virtual meeting of the North South Ministerial Council alongside Irish government leaders.
But ahead of the meeting, the Sinn Féin deputy leader told RTÉ that the DUP had worked against public health experts and their executive colleagues.
"There's a collective will with all the other parties in the executive to do more at different times during throughout pandemic," she said.
"I think it's important that we distinguish the approach to the pandemic."
At a press conference following the meeting, Mrs Foster said: "We do find ourselves in a particularly bad place, I very much regret that that is the case and it's a failure of society as a whole that we have had to introduce these restrictions in the draconian way that they are coming in on Boxing night.
"Last night we did take a very draconian decision, one which I never thought we would have to take. I very much regret the fact that we have had to take it, but we needed to take it and we're facing a great deal of difficulty across Northern Ireland."
She blamed Sinn Féin for the decline in compliance, saying the north had once been the "envy of other colleagues" Britain.
Ms O'Neill told the same news conference: "I never deviated from the advice of the chief medical officer when the health team brought forward proposals for how we respond to Covid".
The deputy first minister, who was interviewed by police earlier this month as part of an investigation into alleged regulation breaches at the west Belfast funeral, said her focus was "on where we are now".
She said the executive as a whole agrees that there was a need of intervention.
Explaining her non-appearance before the cameras, Mrs Foster said there had remained some uncertainty about details of the measures and she did not want to create any confusion before clarity had been secured.
