'Step aside' call to Michelle O'Neill as funeral attendance row continues
SDLP leader Colum Eastwood and DUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson urge Deputy First Minister to stand down while matter can be investigated
Last updated 2nd Jul 2020
Calls are growing for Michelle O'Neill to step aside as the political fallout from her attendance at IRA veteran Bobby Storey's funeral continues
SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said today (Thursday) that this would allow the matter to be examined by the Assembly standards authorities.
And DUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson also called for the Deputy First Minister to stand down while the PSNI probes whether there were social distancing breaches at Tuesday's funeral.
He said the party met this morning to discuss their response after Ms O'Neill refused to apologise for her actions on Wednesday, claiming the Sinn Fein assembly member has "failed to recognise the public mood on this''.
Mr Donaldson said the message from the Northern Ireland Executive has been damaged by Ms O'Neill's actions but stopped short of threatening to collapse Stormont.
"We're in the middle of a pandemic... the Executive stepped up to the mark, what happened this week damaged and undermined what the Executive has been doing but are we seriously saying that the right thing to do is bring the Executive crashing down because of the wrongdoing of Sinn Fein?
"Sinn Fein need to step up now and take responsibility for what they have done," he said.
The move has plunged the recently restored powersharing institutions into crisis again, with four of the parties in the five-party coalition executive calling for Ms O'Neill to stand down.
It follows claims the Deputy First Minister did not adhere to social distancing guidelines.
Ms O'Neill has accused her critics of political point-scoring and said her actions were in line with social distancing.
Meanwhile, today's covid media briefing with the First and Deputy First Ministers has been cancelled.
The events have echoes of the cash-for-ash furore that pulled down the devolved government in 2017 when DUP leader Arlene Foster refused to accede to a Sinn Fein call for her to stand down pending an investigation into a botched green energy scheme.
On Tuesday, she urged Ms O'Neill to apologise and make amends for what happened at the funeral.