Northern Ireland deal to restore power sharing after two year gap – how it happened and what comes next

Article first appeared in The Conversation.

The Democratic Unionist party (DUP) leader, Jeffrey Donaldson, has finally moved to restore power sharing in Northern Ireland after nearly two years of protest.

The DUP, which has the second most seats in the Northern Ireland assembly, collapsed the government in February 2022 over the terms of the Brexit deal. Many unionists felt that the checks on trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland served to separate the region from the UK, and so undermined the Union.

UK prime minister Rishi Sunak attempted to address these concerns via the “Windsor framework”, negotiated with Brussels last spring. This agreement minimised checks on goods coming into Northern Ireland. But the DUP insisted that the UK government had not addressed all of its concerns, and power sharing remained in abeyance.

Now, after months of further talks, Donaldson has decided that he has won enough concessions (or that he will not get any more). He has made clear his intent to lead the DUP back into power sharing with Sinn Féin, the largest party in the assembly, after agreeing a deal with the UK government.

 

What’s likely to be in the deal?

Details have not been released, but Donaldson claims it will further limit checks on goods entering Northern Ireland, and the extent to which the region follows EU law. Both of these elements were part of the original Brexit deal, which was designed to avoid the UK’s departure from the EU creating a “hard border” in Ireland. Such an outcome would have destabilised the Good Friday agreement and Northern Ireland peace process.

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Article first appeared in The Conversation. 

 

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