‘Friendly working relationship’ between O’Neill and Little-Pengelly

A “friendly working relationship” between the leaders of Stormont’s powersharing Executive helps it to navigate challenging issues, Michelle O’Neill has said.

The First Minister said it was “not roses every day” in her relationship with deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly, but stressed that they attempted to focus on areas of common ground.

Ms Little-Pengelly said she believed people in Northern Ireland were sick of seeing politicians get involved in “silly squabbles with each other”.

Under the rules of powersharing, the offices of first and deputy first minister, filled by the largest parties from the nationalist and unionist communities, have equal authority. All decisions are taken on a joint basis.

Sinn Fein’s Ms O’Neill and Ms Little-Pengelly of the DUP have occupied the roles since devolution was restored at Stormont exactly a year ago.

Together, they have represented Northern Ireland at a number of events, including travelling to the US for the annual St Patrick’s Day celebrations in Washington last March.

Asked about their working relationship, Ms O’Neill said: “Emma and I, we come from two very different backgrounds, and we also have two different aspirations, legitimate aspirations for the future and where we think we should be.

“But our job is to lead here in the Executive, our job is to lead in a joined-up way.

“I think that is challenging at the best of times but I think we have got a very good friendly working relationship that allows us to be able to navigate through some of the most challenging of issues as they arise.

“It is not all roses every day, but it is certainly something that we try to work through.

“We said from day one we would focus on the areas of common ground, we said we would focus on delivery and making a difference to people’s lives and I hope that is what people have felt over the course of the last year.”

Ms Little-Pengelly said the two leaders had done their best to “build that very strong and robust working and professional relationship”.

She said: “I think that is what the public of Northern Ireland expect of us.

“Right from the outset we said we wouldn’t focus on what we disagree with, that we would try to focus on the key prioritisation of the big issues.

“I do think that the people of Northern Ireland are sick of people getting involved in silly squabbles with each other.

“They want us to step up and to lead this Executive in a way which has a focus on delivery, with a bit of maturity, trying to work through that very difficult circumstance of a four-party coalition.”

She added: “But I think we have done a strong job in terms of getting those four parties to prioritise and a real focus on making differences.

“There will always be things we disagree on, things we call each other out on publicly, particularly in the political space.

“But what the public of Northern Ireland want of us is to put petty squabbles to one side.

“There will always be important issues, big issues that we will differ on but I think people want us to focus on those key things we agree on.”