Naomi Long: Sinn Féin has to help DUP get over the line
Alliance Party leader Naomi Long says Sinn Féin needs to compromise “to help get the DUP over the line” in talks to restore power-sharing in the North.
She called for all-party talks.
“At the end of the day, it’s important to get people back in the room, to restore trust so we can get back to the job we should be doing.”
Ms Long told RTE radio’s Morning Ireland that during the last round of talks the Alliance party had been on the periphery. Two party talks between Sinn Féin and the DUP had been exhausted, she said.
It’s time to have all the parties included in the process. There may be solutions from the smaller parties that might get beyond stalemate.
There was a need to get back to the basic principles and to find long term sustainable solutions. It would be worse to have the Assembly “up and running” and then “hit a bump.”
The challenge is to have issues fully resolved “not just sticking a plaster on an open wound.”
Ms Long said there is a need to balance the desire to see reform and change along with more rights against the need to be practical.
“You can’t expect one party to get all it wants or one party to be ignored.”
All the parties have a mandate to deliver and they need to find ways to deliver for the people who voted for them, she added.
