Britain is planning to take over Northern Ireland’s budget as hopes for a last-minute power-sharing deal fade, ten months after Stormont’s coalition executive collapsed.
A budget imposed from London would simply execute the fiscal programme settled for Belfast before the DUP/Conservative deal. The £1bn funding would be released only if a power-sharing executive is restored or if London imposes full-blown direct rule, the FT says.
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Although neither the DUP nor Sinn Fein was talking publicly at Stormont, experts say a row over the status of the Irish language highlights fundamental divisions that have risen to the fore in the shadow of Brexit.
“The clocks moved back at the weekend and so too did politics in Northern Ireland,” says the BBC’s Enda McClafferty. “The gulf between the DUP and Sinn Fein has widened and the finger-pointing has started.”
Northern Ireland has been without a devolved government since the coalition executive collapsed in January.