Tánaiste Micheál Martin will meet key Stormont parties in Belfast 2023

During his visit to Belfast on Wednesday, Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheál Martin is scheduled to have meetings with the principal parties in Stormont.
Mr. Martin is making his first trip to Northern Ireland since the results of the local government elections that took place a month ago, which confirmed Sinn Féin’s position as the largest party in the Northern Ireland local government.

The party was successful in winning 144 seats, which is a gain of 39 seats over its performance in 2019.

As a direct consequence of this victory, the party is now, for the very first time, the largest party in both local government and the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Mr. Martin called the finance discussion “significant.”

Following the dissolution of the Northern Ireland Executive in December of last year as part of the DUP’s protest against post-Brexit negotiations with the European Union, power-sharing has been put on hold in Northern Ireland for the time being.

The five main parties in Northern Ireland got up with the head of the civil service last month to talk about financing issues and governance problems in the region.

They estimated that an additional one billion pounds worth of funds will be necessary in any future executive in order to alleviate the strain placed on the budget.

It seems expected that Conor Murphy will represent Sinn Féin in the negotiations, as Michelle O’Neill, the party’s northern leader, will be in the United States.

Following the announcement of the results of the local government election, Ms. O’Neill took a trip to Washington on Monday in order to discuss the current state of affairs in Northern Ireland with top authorities and members of Congress.