N Ireland power-sharing government talks collapse

By Ahmet Gurhan Kartal

LONDON (AA) – The talks to form a new power-sharing government after the March 2 election in Northern Ireland collapsed Sunday after Sinn Fein's announcement of withdrawal.

“Today we have come to end of the road,” Michelle O’Neill, the party’s leader in the North said, a day before the deadline to form a new administration.

“The talks process has run its course and Sinn Fein will not be nominating for the position of speaker or for the Executive office tomorrow,” O’Neill said.

The deadline to form a new government following the recent Assembly election, in which Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and Sinn Fein won the most seats is 4pm on Monday.

The U.K.'s Northern Ireland Secretary James Brokenshire said in a statement Sunday that he was "determined to see a functioning Executive in place at Stormont...and this remains the UK government’s continuing priority."

"Even at this stage I urge political parties to agree to work to form an Executive and provide people here with the strong and stable devolved government that they want," he added.

If the sides fail to reach a deal by the deadline, Brokenshire may call a fresh election or seek ways to extend the deadline.

Until a financial scandal over a botched state-backed heating scheme (RHI) -- which could cost the taxpayers £500 million ($614 million) -- the DUP led by First Minister Arlene Foster shared power in an uneasy alliance with their Irish nationalist Sinn Fein opponents, led by party president Gerry Adams.

When Foster's Sinn Fein deputy Martin McGuinness withdrew from the local administration, the U.K.’s Secretary of State for Northern Ireland James Brokenshire was forced to announce a March 2 election.

The pro-British Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) managed to remain the biggest party with a single seat margin in the Northern Ireland Assembly as the Irish nationalist Sinn Fein closed in on them following the election.

The DUP emerged with 28 seats despite suffering a backlash over allegations of financial mismanagement, while Sinn Fein got 27 of 90 seats available at the Stormont Assembly, becoming once more the second-largest party.

Sinn Fein has said it will not form a power-sharing government with the Democratic Unionists' leader Arlene Foster as first minister until a public inquiry into the renewable heat incentive comes to a conclusion.