Sinn Féin push for assembly restoration in Hillary Benn meeting

Discussions around getting the Stormont Assembly restored dominated a meeting Sinn Féin held with shadow secretary of state Hilary Benn today.

Mr Benn is taking part in his first visit to the north this week since he was appointed to the role last month.

North Belfast MP John Finucane said he and party vice-president Michelle O'Neill has a "very positive and constructive meeting" with the Labour MP at Parliament Buildings.

"Top of the agenda in our message to him was the need to restore the assembly, to restore the executive, to have ministers in place at the job they were elected to do over a year ago," he told media.

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"We are in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis, we have a health service that demands action to begin to tackle the crisis in our waiting lists and the many other problems in our public services.

"But we were also keen to stress that we don't want to miss the opportunities of the economic potential that we now have here. We also have a very significant and sizeable delegation coming from America in a couple of weeks led by the US president's special envoy Joe Kennedy.

"We were keen to stress that we need ministers in place, we need an Executive to grasp the opportunities with both hands. We need to be working together. We are keen to work with all of the other parties to create jobs, to boost the economy as well as tackling the problems that we all know we have in health, education and public services."

Mr Finucane added: "People voted in an historic election over 18 months ago now, and the very least that they deserve is to have ministers in place, doing the job they should be doing. I don't think there is any excuse for the DUP to be remaining out of government... they need to get back in and respect the outcome of last year's election without delay."

Mr Benn is set to meet the north's main political parties across the day.

On Monday the Labour veteran met with personnel from the Wave Trauma Centre, which supports Troubles victims and relatives of those bereaved, as well as making a visit to Queen’s University Belfast.