NI Protocol: DUP snubs second north-south meeting in days

Another North-South Ministerial Council (NSMC) meeting has been cancelled over a Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) boycott.

DUP Junior Minister Gary Middleton was to take part in Friday's meeting with Sinn Féin Communities Minister Deirdre Hargey but he did not take part.

His party is boycotting the meetings as part of its protest against the Northern Ireland Protocol.

Ms Hargey is seeking legal advice to challenge the DUP's "inaction".

DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson accused Sinn Féin of "hypocrisy given they blocked north-south meetings for three years when they collapsed devolution".

He said the Protocol was a "roadblock which has polluted every part of society".

"The simple way to resolve this matter is for nationalist and republican ministers to recognise that the Irish Sea Border is contrary to the Belfast Agreement," he added.

"Rather than calling for rigorous implementation, Sinn Féin, SDLP and Alliance ministers should join us in calling for London and Brussels to remove the Irish Sea Border."

The NSMC is the main body for cross-border co-operation between the government in Northern Ireland and the Republic.

Friday morning's meeting was due to focus on languages.

Ms Hargey said the lack of cross-community representation meant the meeting was cancelled shortly after it was due to begin.

"I consider this inaction by minister Gary Middleton and the Executive Office to be a serious failure to comply with the law and the ministerial code which require ministers to participate in meetings of the NSMC," she said.

"The DUP cannot cherry-pick and through inaction and obstruction hamper government business on behalf of the public we all serve and represent."

Infrastructure Minister and SDLP MLA Nicola Mallon challenged the governments in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland after the cancellation of a previous NSMC meeting on Wednesday.

Ms Mallon had been due to accompany DUP Agriculture Minister Edwin Poots to that session.

Ms Mallon has called on the Irish and British governments to intervene as co-guarantors of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.

"All ministers have a responsibility to uphold the ministerial code and to uphold all strands of the Good Friday Agreement," she said.

"The DUP owns the mess of Brexit and its out workings, their beef is with the British government and boycotting north south institutions changes nothing."

In a tweet, DUP MLA Jonathan Buckley said the matter could be solved by a "simple solution".

"Nichola, stop calling for "rigorous implementation" and supporting measures which damage GB-NI relations, something which is also integral to the Belfast Agreement which you care not to mention," he said.

In response to Ms Mallon's tweet, TUV leader Jim Allister said that "protocol fanatics need to learn the price of their fanaticism".

The Northern Ireland Protocol was agreed by the UK and EU to avoid a hard border in Ireland.

It does that by keeping Northern Ireland in the EU's single market for goods.

That has created a new trade border in the Irish Sea, causing some difficulties in moving goods from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.

Under the DUP's five-point plan, in protest at post-Brexit arrangements for Northern Ireland, ministers are refusing to take part in north-south engagement where the protocol is being discussed.