Stormont: We need government and we need it now - Sinn Féin

The new Brexit deal should lead to the immediate restoration of power-sharing at Stormont, Northern Ireland's largest party Sinn Féin has said.

The Windsor Framework was announced on Monday following months of talks.

The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) is boycotting power-sharing until its concerns about post-Brexit trading arrangements are fixed.

It has said it will not be rushed into deciding whether to back the new Windsor Framework.

But Sinn Féin's vice-president Michelle O'Neill said it would be a "missed opportunity" if the DUP decides not to return to devolved government before the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement next month.

The DUP is the second largest party at Stormont but, as the biggest unionist party, its participation is required for the restoration of power sharing.

The prime minister said the deal put Northern Ireland in an enviable position with unique access to both the European and UK markets, but said he would not rush the DUP into taking a decision on whether to support it.

It is possible the party could take weeks - or even months - before it reaches a collective decision.

The aim of the deal is to address issues with the Northern Ireland Protocol, part of the UK's Withdrawal Agreement with the EU in 2019.

Ms O'Neill's party has cautiously welcomed the Windsor Framework, and she said now negotiations had concluded, NI parties should waste no time in getting power-sharing restored.

"I rarely find myself agreeing with a British prime minister but access to both markets has to be grabbed with both hands," she told reporters on Wednesday,

"We are about to attend events in Washington for St Patrick's Day which is about encouraging investment here.

"All efforts have to be focused on looking ahead and celebrating the upcoming anniversary."

Businesses had told her they wanted politicians to maximise the potential of the UK-EU deal and use the anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement to be a real catalyst for economic investment, she added.

There are some dates that might play into the DUP's thinking before it decides whether to return to Stormont:

Usually involves delegations from each political party travelling to the US.

When an executive is sitting, it also provides opportunities to promote investment, a point Michelle O'Neill was at pains to point out.

Given it's in a fortnight's time, it seems unlikely the DUP will have made its mind up by then.

10 April marks the 25th anniversary of the deal that helped to end the Troubles and designed the modern power-sharing institutions at Stormont.

The British and Irish governments would love nothing more than to have Stormont restored by then, given the 20th anniversary programme was muted as devolution was suspended in 2018.

The DUP will be weighing up if it is better to be back in government, or still holding out, to boost its performance at the polls.

Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald said time was of the essence to ensure power-sharing returns and said her party was making active preparations to return to government at Stormont.

"This is a win for everybody," she said. "We hope everyone has the wit, common sense and goodwill to grab the opportunity - there's no point finger-pointing."

Meanwhile, the UK's former top Brexit negotiator has said the new deal with the EU will make the Northern Ireland Protocol easier to operate but does not change its fundamentals.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Lord Frost said the government had been "overclaiming" some parts of the deal.

He cited the extent to which it removes trade friction between Northern Ireland and Great Britain.

But Lord Frost concluded that did not mean the deal should not go ahead, even if it was "a bitter pill to swallow".

In a tweet on Tuesday night, he acknowledged that the framework announced by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and the EU included some improvements.

But he added that it "seems hugely oversold and may entrench the protocol framework rather than weaken it".

Lord Frost's Telegraph article argued that the Northern Ireland Protocol has been "simply renamed the Windsor Framework.

"It is slightly amended but remains in place, and EU law remains supreme in Northern Ireland."

He also questioned the UK government's claim that there was now no border in the Irish Sea as a result of the new deal.

He said he did not believe that was correct because "moving goods to Belfast will still not really be like moving goods to Birmingham".

Lord Frost wrote that "any goods other than food, drink, and pharma must still meet EU standards" under the framework.

"Export a new car for sale by a Northern Ireland dealer, and it must be made to EU standards, not UK ones," he wrote.

Alliance Party leader Naomi Long praised the prime minister for achieving quite a positive outcome for Northern Ireland businesses in the deal.

She criticised his predecessor Boris Johnson for how the original protocol negotiations were handled in 2019.

"If we'd had a serious prime minister, willing to engage at that time, we could have had this deal then and not had to go through all the pain that we've had in the interim."

The UK's former peace process negotiator Jonathan Powell has said the DUP was right to take its time to assess the deal but "should not get lost in the weeds".

Mr Powell suggested that the DUP would be "wise" to ultimately accept the deal even if it does not deliver everything they want.

Writing in the Financial Times, Mr Powell said the alternative would be "a dead end with no assembly at Stormont and permanent political instability in Northern Ireland".

He was chief British negotiator in Northern Ireland between 1997 and 2007.

AT-A-GLANCE: The keys points in the agreement

ANALYSIS: What the deal means for businesses

EXPLAINED: The Stormont brake and how it works

DUP DILEMMA: Stakes are high for unionist party

Central to the trade aspects of the new deal is the concept of green lanes and red lanes.

British goods which are staying in Northern Ireland will use the green lane at Northern Ireland ports, meaning they will not have to be checked and would require minimal paperwork.

Goods which are due to travel into the Republic of Ireland will use the red lane, meaning they would face customs processes and other checks at Northern Ireland ports.

The Stormont official who originally developed that concept said the new deal was better in "practical, constitutional and presentational terms" than either the Brexit backstop or the original protocol.

Andrew McCormick was the official in charge of Brexit issues at Stormont.

Much earlier in the Brexit process, in 2018, but at that time the UK government was not keen on the idea.

Writing for the think tank, UK In A Changing Europe, he said the new framework was "a very significant achievement - well beyond expectations on what might have been negotiable in the context set by the previous stances of the UK government and the EU".