The latest deadline to restore power-sharing at Stormont will expire at midnight Thursday evening.
The DUP walked out of government in Northern Ireland almost two years ago as part of its protest against the post-Brexit Irish Sea trade border.
Three months later, Sinn Féin were returned an assembly poll as the largest party in the North with Michelle O’Neill First Minister Designate.
If no Executive is formed by Thursday night's deadline the Northern Ireland Secretary of State, Chris Heaton-Harris, can call a new Assembly election. However, he has indicated that he will not do this and will extend a further deadline.
On the eve of mass public sector pay strikes, MLAs gathered in the Assembly in a vain attempt to elect a Speaker, only for the DUP to block the move.
Speaking in the Chamber, Sinn Féin leader in the North, Michelle O’Neill, said the only remaining explanation for the DUP boycott of Stormont is their refusal to accept a nationalist First Minister.
“If Jeffrey Donaldson does not change his approach, then this sitting may well be the final one of this Assembly.
“I fear that the democratic institutions of the Good Friday Agreement are in free-fall. And while this is reprehensible, those are the hard facts before us.”
She said there is now an obligation on the British and Irish governments to look at Plan B – “a British-Irish partnership that provides joint stewardship and an intensified role for the Irish Government in the affairs of this State and our administration."
