Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Dodds: DUP ready for Stormont return without conditions
DUP politicians “stand ready” to get back into Stormont without any preconditions.
Speaking in the Commons, Nigel Dodds said: “There is a refusal on the part of Sinn Fein to take hard decisions. A refusal to work within the parameters of a devolved legislature which has to set budgets and work within the block grant and that was part of the problem, one of the reasons we’re now in this situation.”
Secretary of State Karen Bradley said this week she will not impose a framework deal or a timetable to resume negotiations on Stormont’s deadlocked parties.
Mr Dodds added: “We stand ready to get back into the government immediately without any preconditions. In any survey that’s done right across both communities, the issues that matter to people are health, education, infrastructure, housing, the environment.
“These are the things people care about and they want their politicians to be delivering on them and so do we.
“That is why we are mystified and why most people in Northern Ireland are bewildered at the fact that Sinn Fein put very narrow partisan political issues above dealing with these issues.”
Independent Lady Hermon asked: “So what exactly is holding up the DUP in getting back into talks with Sinn Fein and seeing the restoration of devolution?”
Mr Dodds replied: “We are no barrier to devolution...and perhaps more pressure exerted on those who are the barrier would be actually more productive.”
Mr Dodds also questioned to what extent Brexit, Northern Ireland and the Belfast Agreement, the peace process and the political situation was being used by some people “actually to thwart Brexit or to shape a Brexit they would like”.