Summer of Stormont drift 'unacceptable' O'Neill warns

A summer of drift in the Stormont powersharing impasse is not acceptable, Michelle O'Neill has warned.

The Sinn Fein vice president urged the UK and Irish governments to develop a plan to secure a return to devolution following on from their engagement at last week's British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference in London.

There is little evidence that the DUP is poised to make an imminent return to powersharing.

The party has said it will only end its ongoing blockade of the institutions when the UK government delivers further legislative assurances on post-Brexit trade.

That would make it unlikely that the DUP would countenance any return to devolution until at least the autumn.

Ms O'Neill said the scale of the financial problems facing public services in Northern Ireland meant a summer of continued limbo must be avoided.

"Nobody should accept that, I certainly don't accept that," she told the PA news agency.

"I'm going to keep pushing, cajoling, doing whatever I can."

"I don't accept that it should be let sit over the summer while people are struggling or people are worried about their children's places in school or whatever else is at the top of people's minds right now."

"There are huge challenges facing our public services and I think where we all need to be as political parties is working together, actually to ensure that we have proper funding for our public services."

"We have a big job of work to do there. We're not funded properly. We're not funded adequately. So that needs to be worked on there. But we do that collectively with one voice."

The meeting of the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference took place in central London last Monday, with both governments making renewed pledges to restore governance in the region.

A joint communique, issued after the meeting at the Mansion House, said that politicians "discussed the serious and deepening consequences for people in Northern Ireland arising from the ongoing absence of fully functioning institutions".

Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton Harris stressed the importance of privacy to any negotiations to restore powersharing, declining to give a "running commentary" on talks with the DUP.

Commenting on the meeting, Ms O'Neill referenced the issues parents of children with special needs were having in securing school places as one example of why politicians need to return to Stormont

"The only thing that did come out of it was that the two governments agreed that there needs to be a restored executive - what we need to see now is a plan to actually make that happen," she said."

"I think that when you look at the scale of challenges facing families, workers and families right now - this last week we're talking about special educational needs and places - we need to be in that executive standing up for these people."

"So, I'm not going to give up. I'm determined to keep trying and I am determined to lead from the front for all the people in the North."