Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald has demanded that DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson “demonstrates respect and inclusion” by serving as Deputy First Minister in the Northern Ireland Executive. 

The 2022 Assembly election was morale shattering for the DUP as many of its voters peeled off to the moderate Alliance party and hard line TUV; with its support in freefall, the party finished two seats behind Sinn Féin and now the party is entitled to nominate a First Minister. 

For weeks the DUP has said it will refuse to serve in the Executive alongside Sinn Féin unless issues around the contentious Northern Ireland Protocol are resolved. However, for Ms McDonald, the DUP's participation is a fundamental test of values: 

“It is, I suppose, a test on the one hand of equality [and] commitment to powersharing,” Deputy McDonald told On The Record with Gavan Reilly. 

“It’s very important that the DUP who have emerged as the second largest party demonstrate respect and inclusion by agreeing to serve in that joining office with a republican First Minister. 

“And I think that is more than symbolism for wider society because it sends out a very, very clear message to everybody… that equality and sharing power, parity of esteem… that we are committed to that, not just rhetorically but in deed as well as words.” 

DUP MLA for Lagan Valley Sir Jeffrey Donaldson.

On the thorny question of the Northern Ireland Protocol, Ms McDonald said that it was not a competence devolved to the Assembly and the DUP’s decision to abstain from the Executive would change nothing: 

“The reality is the difficulties, as the DUP perceive them, with the protocol can only be sorted out through a process of good faith engagement and dialogue between the Government in London and the European institutions,” she continued.  

“That’s the fact. 

“Keeping the institutions, keeping the Executive down in Belfast will not change the Protocol one iota.” 

Sinn Féin Leader Mary Lou McDonald, flanked by Michelle O'Neill, Sinn Féin's leader in Northern Ireland, walk to a meeting with Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May in London, Britain, October 15, 2018. REUTERS/Simon Dawson

Border poll

Under the Good Friday Agreement, the decision on whether to hold a border poll lies with the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland but Ms McDonald said it was important that people start planning for one regardless: 

“We are in times of very profound change,” she continued. 

“And that change has to be managed because we’ve seen, for example in the Brexit experience, just how chaotic things can become if there isn’t that level of planning and that level of engagement - so that’s priority number one.” 

However, Ms McDonald’s call for a referendum in the medium-term has received a rather cool response from other parties; Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said he was “not convinced” Ireland was any closer to unification, noting that most MLAs in the Stormont Assembly are opposed to a border poll: 

“If there was a vote in the Assembly in a few weeks’ time as to whether there should be a border poll it would be defeated,” Mr Varadkar said. 

“That means the test of the Good Friday Agreement for having a border poll is not met, and actually fewer MLAs would vote for a border poll in the new assembly than in the last.” 

The British Flag Flies in front of Government Buildings. Picture by: Brian O'Leary/Photocall Ireland

Across the water in London, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Brandon Lewis, was similarly cool to the idea: 

“[Despite] Sinn Féin having gained seats, we haven’t seen a growth in the nationalist vote and, indeed, the unionist vote is still larger, the number of seats still held by unionist parties is still larger,” he said. 

“So I think the focus at the moment, quite rightly, is on getting Stormont back up and running.” 

Main image: Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald and DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson.