Niall Ó Donnghaile (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Ar dtús báire, ba mhaith liom labhairt faoin toghchán ó Thuaidh. I am sure the Leader will agree that the people of the North have spoken at the election last week to the Assembly, and they have spoken clearly. They have, in the first instance, elected a majority of MLAs who support the protocol and want to see it embedded, resolved and continuing to work for everyone. They also elected a majority of MLAs and parties who want to get back to work and who want to see the institutions, or the Good Friday Agreement in the form of the Assembly and the Executive, back around the table and delivering for people. We are all very conscious of the difficulties facing people across Ireland not least with the cost-of-living crisis.

In my own capacity, I want to congratulate Michelle O’Neill, my party colleague and our First Minister elect in the North. Her election represents a very important historic, symbolic and seismic change in the politics of the North. When someone like Michelle, a very proud Irish republican and nationalist can take that position in a system and a state that was designed to ensure that such a thing would never happen, the historic significance and the political significance of that is not lost on me or on many people in the North and beyond.

I want to take the opportunity today to call on the DUP to stop holding people to ransom and stop punishing the public by not returning to the Executive. More than £300 million is waiting and ready to go to be directed into the pockets of workers and families. We can invest more than £1 billion in the health service over the next three years and we can continue the work of building 100,000 social and affordable homes over the next 15 years. Those are the issues that people want to see addressed. I know the Leader will agree with me on that.Those are the issues that fall within the remit of the Assembly and the Executive. The protocol is an issue. There is no doubt there are issues that need to be and can be worked out, but they will not be worked out in the Assembly or the Executive. It is an issue for the British Government and the EU institutions. In the meantime, I encourage colleagues from every party to recommit to the institutions, get back into them and get to work. In congratulating Michelle O'Neill - I know the Leader would not expect me to be partisan - I also congratulate all those who put their names forward, which we know is not easy, and were returned and commiserate with those who did not make it across the line on this occasion.