Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald says the party will not be “goaded” into a “knee jerk” response of collapsing Stormont.
Ms McDonald was speaking alongside First Minister Michelle O’Neill and North Belfast MP John Finucane in Stormont on Thursday after a meeting with Taoiseach Micheál Martin.
Some nationalist commentators have suggested Sinn Féin should collapse the institutions in response to hostility from the DUP towards Irish language and identity projects.
This week saw the latest row between the two largest parties in the Executive over the funding for the Place Names Project, which provides services that help with the delivery of dual language street signage.
SDLP Opposition leader Matthew O’Toole said on Wednesday collapsing the Stormont institutions would be a “dangerous” move for Sinn Féin, a sentiment which its president appeared to echo.
“I think firstly it is absolutely unacceptable that such a hostile approach has been taken to that Logainmneacha (Place Names) project, a project that has been, to any fair minded person, a positive thing,” Ms McDonald said.
“The amount of money involved was very small, I understand about £90,000 and in any event Caoimhe Archibald has intervened to sort that matter out.
“Sinn Féin has no intention of being in any way reckless in terms of political delivery for people right across the north, far from it.
“We want to do the best job that we can, we want to deliver for people in a way that’s fair and balanced and decent.
“If others think that they will goad us into knee-jerk responses they are very very wrong.”
Ms McDonald added those comments should not be taken as an unwillingness from the party to defend Irish language and identity.
“I will also say this, nobody should misunderstand our absolute determination to defend the Irish language, to defend Irish national identity, to defend the concepts of respect and equality.
“We demand that for ourselves, for those that we represent and we afford that to those that are represented by others and if we can all play to that standard, I would suggest we’re going to have much better politics and much better delivery for everyone right across our communities.”
On Wednesday Sinn Féin welcomed proposals from the Alliance Party which set out a number of potential reforms to the Stormont institutions to prevent future collapse. While Ms McDonald did not specify which of the proposals they would support, it’s understood the party will bring forward its own proposals in the coming weeks.
“We want that conversation to happen, we will bring forward our own proposals
“We know that other people have proposals too and we will work our way in good faith systematically through all of those.”
