Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I think different parties have different views; that is the straight answer to the Deputy's question. I think some parties would need some persuasion that introducing an independent chair at this stage would be helpful because I am not sure that it is right now. What the Governments need to do, and what we will be doing, is discussing how the two Governments, working together, can help to create a context and, in time, put a structure in place that can allow for a political negotiation to result in a willingness to set up devolved government and an Assembly again. There is work to do in that area, and I have to say I am concerned about the polarisation in Northern Ireland right now. Some of that is linked to Brexit and some of it is linked to a frustration about a lack of progress in terms of devolved government. That impacts on the capacity of many community projects and so on that rely on political decision making for support and they are very uncertain about their future and future funding models and so on. There was a need for a budget to be passed in Westminster to try to provide financial certainty at least for the moment, and we support that. There is a need for political structures to be in place to ensure that political decisions can be made in Northern Ireland which cannot be made at the moment.

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