THE DUP’s ‘cash for ash’ scandal is the occasion for Martin McGuinness’s resignation, not the cause as many people assert.
In a series of speeches, articles and statements since the turn of the year Sinn Féin figures like Gerry Adams, Declan Kearney, Matt Carthy MEP for Midlands-North-West have castigated the DUP in general and Arlene Foster in particular for arrogance, a refusal to engage Sinn Féin as equals let alone partners.
On Saturday at Sinn Féin’s Cúige Uladh in a long, carefully worded speech Gerry Adams provided a list of grievances.
He said Martin McGuinness and Sinn Féin had faced ‘deliberate provocation, arrogance and disrespect’. He made clear the institutions of the Good Friday Agreement are not delivering.
He accused the DUP of failing to honour agreements and that would include the Fresh Start Agreement of November 2015.
Of course the final straw was the stupidly provocative withdrawal of the means-tested bursary for Gaeltacht study visits by Paul Givan whom Adams described as ‘an ignoramus’.
A frail looking Martin McGuinness reiterated some of these accusations in his press conference on Monday and made clear his was more than just a resignation for tactical purposes.
He was adamant, ‘there will be no return to the status quo’. The DUP will not be returning to ministerial office after an election unless their present behaviour ends.
McGuinness also made clear the decision for him to resign was taken at an ard chomhairle meeting in Dublin on Sunday night on his proposal.
What that decision means is that we’re in for another bout of tortuous negotiations before a new executive can be formed.
In the meantime there will be no inquiry into the heating scandal, no Stormont budget and no agreed position on Brexit negotiations.
The $64,000 question is how can the outcome of any negotiations be nailed down? What’s to stop the DUP signing up to a set of arrangements and reneging again as they did on the Programme of Government, on the legal obligation to promote Irish language, the Fresh Start agreement, and even on what Gerry Adams referred to as the daily ‘churlish’ behaviour of their backwoodsmen in Stormont?
In short the institutions of the Good Friday Agreement are in crisis. Sinn Féin has decided that after a decade in the executive not only are they are not delivering change, they’re not delivering good governance, equality of status and parity of esteem.
Can Sinn Féin make the election be about those matters or will Arlene Foster show she is incapable of doing other than turn the election into a sectarian head count?
You can call an election but you can’t control what the issues in that election will be. What we do know from yesterday is that it won’t be about cash for ash.
It also seems that the resignation yesterday was a valedictory for Martin McGuinness. Both Gerry Adams and he referred to his 10 years as deputy First Minister. No one, including McGuinness, looked forward to him returning at the head of the Sinn Féin assembly team for more years. He wouldn’t even confirm that he will be a candidate.
Monday was a defining moment, a breaking point for Sinn Féin who have invested so much as a party in the north’s institutions.
Arlene Foster’s arrogant watch in Sinn Féin’s view demonstrates that the party does not have a partner in administration and therefore those institutions under her tutelage are not worth the candle.
In negotiations after the election it will be up to Foster to convince Sinn Féin she will mend her ways and embrace the concept of equality and parity of esteem.
