The Stormont Assembly failed to elect a speaker today.
The Assembly adjourned without also carrying out any other business, including the appointment of a first and deputy first minister.
And there was a warning from First Minister designate Michelle O'Neill.
She said that the Assembly may never return.
According to the Irish News, Mike Nesbitt of the UUP and Patsy McGlone of the SDLP were nominated by their parties for the role of speaker of the Assembly. However, the vote needed for the sitting to proceed to the next stages did not take place.
The all-too-brief return resulted from a petition brought by Sinn Féin. It was the sixth recall of the Assembly since May 2022
The Assembly collapsed in early 2022 as a result of DUP’s stance over post-Brexit trade rules for the North.
Said Michelle O'Neill: “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. While this is reprehensible, those are the hard facts before us.
"The argument that this (Stormont suspension) continues to relate to the Windsor Framework has lost all credibility. Few people out there know what the DUP are talking about, and fewer care because it’s not in the common good.
“The hardship and suffering, the bread-and-butter issues for workers, families, households and businesses is what counts, and it’s what the DUP still refuse to prioritize. The only remaining explanation for the DUP boycott is the refusal to accept a nationalist first minister.
“There is a dangerous attempt underway to disregard the democratic outcome of the assembly election and this threatens our democratic governance, public administration, reconciliation and the fabric of this society.”
