LONDON (AP) — The leader of Northern Ireland’s largest British Protestant party says there won’t be a deal to restore the collapsed power-sharing government until the fall.
Democratic Unionist Party leader Arlene Foster said Tuesday that her party and Irish nationalists Sinn Fein have not reached a deal, but “we’re going to continue talking throughout the summer.”
The Catholic-Protestant power-sharing administration has been on ice since January, and several government-imposed deadlines for a deal have passed — the latest on Monday.
The parties have blamed each other for the impasse that threatens power-sharing, the key achievement of Northern Ireland’s 1998 peace accord.
U.K. Northern Ireland Secretary James Brokenshire said Monday he remained hopeful a deal could be struck to break the impasse, which has left residents without a functioning government for six months.
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