Coronavirus: Tension at Stormont over NI Covid-19 restrictions

5 min readOct 14, 2020

Stormont ministers have yet to make an announcement about imposing new coronavirus restrictions across Northern Ireland.

The parties held late-night talks on Tuesday to finalise decisions, which could include tighter measures for hospitality.

Assembly members were called to Stormont to possibly debate the new rules but were later sent home.

A statement is due to be made in the assembly on Wednesday at 10:30 BST.

Tension has been growing between the five main Stormont parties as pressure mounts over calls to impose new restrictions, in a bid to bring spiralling cases of coronavirus under control.

It comes as seven more coronavirus-related deaths were reported on Tuesday by the Department of Health.

Another 863 cases of the virus were also recorded, bringing Northern Ireland’s total to 21,898 — more than a quarter of which have been recorded in the past seven days.

Derry City and Strabane is the UK’s worst-hit area, while Belfast has the eighth-highest rate of infection in the UK.

Health chiefs are warning some services are beginning to suffer due to Covid-related pressures.

Extended half-term break?

Tuesday’s meeting was delayed until 21:30, with ministers reconvening again at 23:00 at the request of the SDLP, to allow smaller parties more time to read the proposals, which they had only received a short time before the meeting.

The proposals warn that Covid-19 infection rates will keep rising if both schools and the hospitality sector remain open.

The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) argues it is critical schools remain open, but its power-sharing partner Sinn Féin has said medical advice points to the need for wider action.

It is thought the executive could announce a period of four weeks of tighter restrictions for pubs and restaurants, while schools could get an extended half-term break.

That would differ from advice set out by Department of Health officials, which said there would need to be a period of four to six weeks of measures in order to have the greatest impact.

It is also understood the health department wants any new measures in force by this Friday at the latest, but the executive will determine when the restrictions take effect.

First it was on, then it was off again — all night long various parties seemed just as confused as the public waiting for news of an announcement.

But it didn’t happen — much to the frustration of quite a few assembly members who made their way back to the hill hours after normal business had ended.

Behind the scenes of the late-night executive zoom call, tensions were high.

One source described the atmosphere when the meeting finally got under way with the five parties as “horrendous”, with smaller parties venting frustration that they hadn’t received enough time to consider the proposals before signing off on them.

No-one is in any doubt that the decisions the executive is facing come with massive repercussions across many aspects of life in Northern Ireland.

But given the warnings from health officials that action must happen without delay, some people may scratch their heads wondering why a decision has rolled into another day.

That is the nature of governing with five political parties involved.

The executive may face questions on their late-night wrangling, and why it appears they may have chosen not to go along fully with the recommendations of health advisers, when so much is yet again at stake.

In a statement on Tuesday evening, the Speaker’s Office confirmed an extra sitting of the assembly would take place on Wednesday morning.

Speaking in a video on social media while the executive was adjourned, First Minister and DUP leader Arlene Foster said for those affected by further restrictions, the executive would “stand with you and will help you and financially support you as best we can”.

“Ministers are elected to decide and to make decisions, and one of the other issues that we feel very passionately about in the DUP is education and the life chances of our young people,” she added.

“Therefore it is critical that we do not have any long-term closures in our schools and that’s something that we feel very, very strongly about.

“Our health service will need to scale up in the coming days, we will need to continue to look for a modern, strong, reformed health service and we are also very clear that whatever we put in place will only be in place for a limited period of time.”

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SOCIAL DISTANCING: How have rules on meeting friends changed?
FACE MASKS: When do I need to wear one?
TESTING: How do I get a virus test?
SYMPTOMS: What are they and how to guard against them?

Coronavirus: Tension at Stormont over NI Covid-19 restrictions

Extended half-term break?

How many cases and deaths in your area?

Written by Babar Dorbar

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