To you first on this Aoife, a victory for Sinn Fein.
What's your sense of how things have shifted in the North and the significance
of this election result that puts in fine, historically on top?
Yeah, it is really, really significant.
It's a historic seat change.
I think you know what we've seen is Sinn Fein doesn't gain any seats,
but they have very much consolidated the seats that they have.
They have a good voter base and they ran a very effective campaign.
I think the bigger seat change that we've seen
is the free fall of unionism in the DUP.
We are seeing people who would have traditionally
been DUP voters slide away from that party.
And that's why we saw the rise in the Alliance party.
I think you know, we're seeing this is the youngest
assembly that we've ever elected.
It's also the most woman we've ever elected, which I think is a great thing.
But what we're seeing is that notion of unionism and all that these young people who would
have traditionally when do you the voters have moved away from that and you know, the
DUP tried to make this, uh, an election and a campaign about the protocol.
And it was very clear from all, um the leaders debates and the debates during
the election and even from the UUP you know Doug Beattie saying when they
came to the doors, it was not the protocol people wanted to talk about.
There is a cost of living crisis.
The health service in the North is on its knees.
There is £3 million waiting in a bank account for Northern Ireland
to be spent, which cannot be spent without an executive.
Those are the things that the people in Northern Ireland want sorted out.
Uh, you know, we heard there from Michelle O'Neill, Matt Carthy.
She is ready to form an executive immediately, but she is a major task ahead.
The secretary of state, Brandon Lewis, will now be meeting with all parties in this,
but it's it's very uncertain as to where it will go well and in real terms.
According to Jeffrey Donaldson, Michelle O'Neill has no task at all because what he
is demanding in order to restore the executive is outside of the control of the executive
is outside of the control of the entire island of Ireland and arguably outside of
the control of even the British and Irish governments together, because it's down
to negotiation between Britain and, uh and the European Union.
Now, of course, there's a sense and a fear that the protocol is a guys, that this is
about unionism not being willing to work alongside a nationalist first minister.
And only time will tell whether there is a that is the issue.
I would have my suspicions.
I have to be quite honest and frank about it, because everybody knows you know the executive,
even if the entire 90 member members of the Assembly agreed with the
DUP majority of them in a large majority don't.
But even if they did, they wouldn't be able to change it unilaterally.
Well, let's go to San McBride on that On on.
The DUP stands on this, and will they accept?
Are they accepting the outcome of this election?
And are they going to contend with second place here?
It's fairly extraordinary that you even have to ask that question.
And yet the reason that you're asking that question is because
Jeffrey Donaldson did not clarify this during the campaign.
He quite deliberately made this a question which was in
people's minds, that was disastrous for his party.
It drove voters to Sinn Fein and it it really undermined the basic principles of any democratic
outcome that you have to accept it, whether you win or whether you lose.
But we've We've had some more clarity from the DUP on that.
Since the result.
One of their ministers has said today quite clearly that, yes,
they will serve with Michelle O'Neill as first minister.
So that seems to be off the table.
That's a fairly easy thing to take off the table because it's purely symbolic.
What Sinn Fein has achieved here is extraordinary.
It's hugely significant in in really symbolic terms, as has been said by Eva there.
But it really is about rubbing the deputy out in front of
the title that that was therefore Michelle O'Neill.
It's it's purely symbolic.
It doesn't give her any extra powers.
That's the easy thing for the DUP to accept.
The more difficult thing is the protocol, and as Matt Carthy says,
that's outside the control of anybody in Northern Ireland.
So that's not looking like we're going to have
a government for a considerable period.
Yeah, I mean, does this really mean weeks of a stalemate here?
You know, what can these negotiations or talks with the British
secretary of state, Brandon Lewis meeting the parties?
Will that do any good at all?
It's just window dressing.
I don't think there's any prospect of that going anywhere.
I think there is a temptation that some people in the D P feel about leaving
this for several months, and if the protocol stays as it is, if the RSC border
stays as it is really going back to the electorate and seeing if actually unionists
will rally behind them, that's a massively risky strategy.
But one significant element of this is that while, as FIFA said, there are unionist
voters who have left unionism who have gone to alliance, who have gone to the centrist
parties and that that has also happened from nationalist parties.
They've lost voters to the centre ground.
But there was a big big shift here, a more significant shift within unionism to the
hardline fringe of Jim Allister to the most anti protocol party that there is.
He got 66,000 votes.
It didn't give him any extra seats in the Assembly, but he
is not a significant force on the right of unionism.
Unionism is both shrinking in this election, but it's also hardening its position.
And that makes it hard for Sir Jeffrey Donaldson to
compromise, even if that's what he wanted to do.
Um, on this one, Jim, the whole formation of the North, you say, was designed
to stay under unionist control, and this has changed everything.
Yet we are at stalemate once again.
Yeah, I think it is a historic event, and I think we need to recognise that the
fact that the Nationalist Party is the largest party in Northern Ireland.
It's something that James Craig would never envisaged
when he set up Northern Ireland in 1922.
So, you know, I congratulate Michelle O Neill and her colleagues.
It's a significant achievement.
It's also historic because of the performance of the Alliance Party and
the Alliance Party went from eight seats to 17 seats and what it shows
also something that James Craig or even Michael Collins at the time wouldn't
have envisaged is that many people in Northern Ireland no longer viewed
themselves as orange or green, and that is growing.
And I think that's a good thing that that is growing.
But it's unfortunately there's a touch of Groundhog Day here.
We've had three assembly elections over the past six years, and during those six
years we've only had an executive sitting for two years and eight months.
So like we cannot allow this to happen again.
The people of Northern Ireland went out last Friday.
They voted, they did their part of the bargain and they are
entitled to get an executive as a result of the votes.
They cast the same any jurisdiction.
If we had an election here and people didn't like the result and
we didn't try to form, the government would be criticised.
So I think really Jeffrey Donaldson, the D P.
Need to recognise that they're playing a dangerous
game by placing their trust in Boris Johnson.
They tried that already and he let them down.
The likelihood is he's going to let them down again and
the problem with this issue is in British politics.
Brexit is not so much an event as a state of mind, and it seems to suit members
of the British Tory party to keep it as a live issue on the agenda fights
with the EU, And that's not serving the interests of Ireland.
How does this dangerous game then potentially play out?
I cannot overstate enough how deeply unpopular the last storm and stalement was.
The people on the doors of Northern Ireland were absolutely furious.
I cannot see how it's going to get any better when there is a cost
of living crisis, and they see MLS who are not at work but getting
paid their very good wage when they're not going to work.
Jeffrey Johnson is playing a very risky game here, and if it does go
the 24 weeks and we have another election, the DUP will pay the price
at the doors even worse than they did on Friday, because the people
of Northern Ireland really, really wants to get back together