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SINN FÉIN’S STORMONT leader Michelle O’Neill has said there is a “real prospect” that Covid-19 restrictions may have to remain in place in Northern Ireland due to legal issues.
The former Deputy First Minister was reacting after it was confirmed that Northern Ireland’s Health Minister Robin Swann is considering legal advice over lifting restrictions.
It is understood Swann has received legal advice from the region’s Attorney General Brenda King.
He sought guidance following the resignation of first minister Paul Givan last week.
Givan’s resignation automatically triggered the resignation of O’Neill as Deputy First Minister, due to Northern Ireland’s power-sharing arrangements.
As a result, the Executive cannot take any significant decisions. This has already been raised as a concern ahead of a vote due on the region’s budget. However, members of the Stormont Assembly can still sit for general sessions and Stormont committees can also sit.
This afternoon Swann confirmed he has received “detailed legal advice on the factors that need to be considered when seeking to amend Executive Covid regulations in the absence of an Executive”.
He added: “This advice is now being given careful consideration and it is my intention to engage with ministerial colleagues.”
It is believed the advice from the attorney general has highlighted potential legal complications of Swann acting without the wider endorsement of an executive.
Executive approval is ordinarily required for decisions that are significant, controversial or cross cutting.
It is understood Swann is now considering whether lifting the remaining restrictions crosses those thresholds.
O’Neill this afternoon said there is a “real prospect” that Covid restrictions may have to remain in place due to legal issues.
“I am aware now that the health minister has received that legal advice and he wants to give it a bit more consideration. I hope that we will be able to find a way forward, something which gives the public some hope and some progression in terms of the Covid restrictions,” O’Neill said.
“This is the direct consequence of the DUP stunt last week, them walking away whenever the rest of us are trying to deal with the pandemic. This is the outworking of what the DUP have done.”
Asked about the prospect that the remaining Covid restrictions may remain in place, she said: “We have to see the legal advice, but of course that is a real prospect, this is the outworking of the DUP’s antics.”
O’Neill said the Stormont parties would try to find ways to lift the remaining Covid restrictions in Northern Ireland.
“I would say to people Robin Swann as Health Minister will have my full support, backed by the medical opinion,” O’Neill said.
“If we can lift restrictions then that is what we should do. We have always said we wouldn’t keep them in place for longer than necessary,” she said.
“The pandemic has been so challenging on so many fronts. If now is the time to lift them, then we will try to find ways to lift them.”
Includes reporting by Press Association
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Am amazed that the Greens still attract 6% in the Poll . I have never heard of some of these ” other ” parties , Rabharta ?
@Des Hanrahan: agree . The Greens will be wiped out
@Des Hanrahan: 6 per cent of nut job’s are going to vote for the Greens
@Bernard Connolly: Ryan has been very quiet lately. He must have been told to rein it in as the party know he will put them into oblivion.
@Des Hanrahan: I will certainly give the Greens a high preference, because whatever one may think of Eamonn Ryan, the Green agenda is extremely important in Ireland and across Europe, and must be maintained and boosted.
@Brendan O’Brien: how’s all in South Dublin
@Brendan O’Brien: Green Party policy is the enemy of the environment.
@a million ,really ! country is gone mad .: I don’t live in South Dublin.
@Brendan O’Brien: You might be on to something there but unfortunately our greens haven’t a clue what they should be doing.
Nice to see Independents and Nationalist parties at the top. We need more Carol Nolans and Mattie McGraths in the EU and Dáil who aren’t afraid of the powers that be or the far left commies.
FF, FG, Greens: start packing yer bags.
@Finn Barr: @Finn Barr: The poll is misleading.
Or at least this report on the poll is misleading.
“The parties classed as ‘other’ include Independent Ireland, Rabharta, the Irish Freedom Party, Ireland First, and The Irish People.”
The vote is probably scattered across a large number of candidates. Our system is such that those with the lower number of votes will be eliminated first, so it is likely these will be gone early on.
@Finn Barr: Who are these far left commies that you are referring to? Ireland has never had any far left in government, while there are no communist parties in power anywhere in Europe to the best of my knowledge.
@Kevin Collins: ‘When you’re to the right of Attila-the-Hun all else seems left’, as the saying goes.
@Kevin Collins: the champions if DEI, identity and gender ideologies, de facto open borders etc…
I’ll fill the ballot with anyone other than FF or FG.
@Rafa C: or Greens – anyone else
@Rafa C: @Rafa C: Or Labour.
Or those far right loons.
@Rafa C: Once the Greens are decimated. That’s all that really matters.
@Rafa C: And you will vote SF – a change for worse. ABSF anybody but SF.
@Vincent Alexander: Yea, it’s SF that have created the crises in housing, health, education…
It’s SF that has been staggering from incompetence to negligence and back again.
It’s SF that gave us the wonders of the children’s hospital and 1/4 Trillion national debt.
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: What’s SF solution? A border poll with the potential for civil disturbance. A drop in living standards by taking on the UK £10 billion subvention to the 6 counties. It will be a lot worse if you get from here to there.
@Vincent Alexander: FFG have had their stint and are crippling the country and instead of doing the right thing and voting FFG out of power you’re more concerned and biased about “but but Sinn Féin” based on your bias and pure conjecture. Open your eyes Vincent.
@Vincent Alexander: I’m not SF.
But if they put a top to corps buying up our housing stock by outbidding the ordinary guy, and turning us into a permanent rental cash cow, then that would be a start.
But tell me, why do FFG(LG) allow this sort of carry on?
@Mr Inbetween: Where is the conjecture? SF said they will have a border poll. UK government gives a £10 billion subvention to NI. It’s current taxpayers in the 26 counties that will pay that in the event of united Ireland. The housing crisis, the health crisis and pollution problems in NI are all under their watch in government.
My eyes have been open to SF rhetoric since the terrorists campaign in NI.
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: The buying, by one entity, of more than ten houses in a large scheme was outlawed in 2023. Your point has been addressed with legislation.
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: I didn’t agree with everything FF and FG do and I cannot see SF government as a solution. I was in a housing estate in a border county late last night and a rough estimate would be at least one in eight cars were northern. Which is legit the council house or the car.
@Vincent Alexander: It’s not up to SF to have a border poll.
Surely you know that?
And how does that address the mess that FFG(LG) have made?
@Vincent Alexander: I don’t understand the point you are trying to make.
@D Farrell: Oh please!
Do you really think that isn’t easy to get around?
It’s very easy to set up companies to buy those 10 houses each.
Does that stop a company buying an entire apartment block?
And anyway, what qualifies as a “large scheme”?
You will find there are plenty of loopholes built in.
If they keep denying their is a problem, bury their heads in the sand, and offer no realistic solutions , people will vote for a party or independents that are at least in touch with reality.
@John Dennehy: where did it all go wrong for Sinn Fein? They used to be on 35%. Do they need to be more angry and cut out appearing responsible?
@Ciaran O’Mara: They have no answers to the problems that Ireland/the EU is facing. All they do is point out the issues and make unrealistic promises. Thankfully, the electorate is becoming wise to this.
@Ciaran O’Mara: Probably the same thing that’s happening to FF/FG, they stopped listening to the people that they were elected to represent. What they all need to do now is start listening and acknowledge people’s genuine concerns, find relistic short, medium and long-term solutions, and stop believing their own PR spin doctors nonsence that is trown out to convince the rest of us they are all doing a great job in government.
@Ciaran O’Mara: FF used to win elections on their own or with a couple of Independents but since the 1980′s they have steadily declined and have gone from top dogs and dropped to third biggest party in the state. Unthinkable 30 years ago but its happened, all crooks eventually get their comeuppance.
@Ciaran O’Mara: No. Many more people realising that they have zero policies and are just playing to the gallery!!! Populist nonsense!!
Voting for Fianna Fail and the like simply isn’t an option anymore.
@Miley Byrne: who do u think will be any different
@Sheila McNulty: Well, shur’ now if they are all the same we might as well take the opportunity to rid ourselves of those who brought us to the verge or ruin, who gave us the wonders of the children’s hospital at whatver number of billions it will eventually cost, who graced us with crises in housing, healtchcare and education, who bequeathed us that magnificent near 1/4 Trillion national debt.
All while handing the assets of the nation over to foreign interests, so that we will be forever only tenants in our own land.
@Sheila McNulty: What do you think is the reason for the sharp decline in support for Fianna Fail?
Not surprised really, with all the recent fiasco’s. All the parties will lose votes to independents etc. Only in Ireland would you give someone a tent and then threaten that it’s illegal to use it and come up with more sound bites, the latest being ” Team Ireland”
@Nigel Hayden: Don’t forget the ‘Be on call for Ireland’ soundbite initiative in 2020, when 74,000 healthcare professionals (including a lot who had emigrated) were willing to come home to help the HSE at the Governments invitation.
Only a couple hundred were eventually recruited and treated like dirt.
We could use those Doctors and Nurses today…
Fina fall is trying get the attention of foreign students every little helps
Voting independent is more or less a FFG vote as most of them are former members of them parties
I’m amazed they left the comments section open!
Great news to read at the start of the day!
Parties, all of them, must be dumped. Party politics has ruined this country. We need independent voices now more than ever.
Vote independents and independents only!
@Michael Dineen: If only there were enough true independents.
Most are sailing under false colours.
The electrite have had enough.
We need an enormous protest vote in the upcoming local and European elections in order to put a clear message across to the main political parties,they are not listening to the fast majority of the population,we the electrite do not want what you are selling.
We were misinformed/lied to on both referendums however over 70% of the electric seen through this and voted NO and NO.
The electrite are now becoming mostly wise to government misinformation & propaganda.
Problem is independent s have history passing votes on to ff and fg. Thats how they get in whole time
Independent is by definition to be hire to the highest bidder. You cannot trust them.
1. They have no guidelines but their own
2. They can change their orientation at any time
3. They are often funded by the wealthy.
4. They will ally if their interest is satisfied.
You can’t vote for that
@Dominic Leleu: You’re probably mostly right.
But I don’t think Ming fits that description.
Interesting young people Favouring SF.
@Phillip Smyth: Have a look at the FF/FG graphs from the 18-54 range. Their biggest opposition now is transience.
“Independent” in Ireland means Independent Fianna Fail or Independent Fine Gael.
They’ve been in power since 1923 and they’re not going to allow “Independents” to have a voice
Indépendant could be the closest to high corruption.
@Dominic Leleu: I see what you did there and Tipp my hat to you :)
Could a better range of colours not have been used to illustrate the graphs, why pick different shades of blue and green when red, brown, orange, pink, yellow etc. are available.
Look at 2019 Independent vote share in European elections. Theres essentially no change with this poll… All spin
If ‘independent ‘ refers to isolationist, bigoted xenophobes this is not good for Ireland.
@Seanfhear míshásta: Good man! Its name-calling your fellow Irishmen and women like that that have PBP and Labour topping the polls!
Keep it up lol!
@Finn Barr: The Far Right: Isolationist – check. Bigoted – checkedy check. Xenophobic – checkedy check check. If the cap fits, etc and so on
Everyone, please use your Vote. !! Irish Freedom Party, Ireland First, National Party !!
If people give no preference to any of the following fg, ff, greens, social democrats, liebour, pbp, sinn Fein , it Will be the end of the rodents.
Do not give any transfers! That is how Harris and Varadkar got elected last time.
Greens foe me
@socheallaigh: there a lot of peoples foe.
Expert warns Sweden on ‘brink of civil war’ as country gripped by migrant violence
EXCLUSIVE: Spiralling gun crime, marauding migrant gangs and fascist violence – how Sweden became Europe’s crime capital.
By MAX PARRY, News Reporter
Sweden is bordering on “civil war” as the country has become gripped by migrant violence, according to a leading expert.
Göran Adamson, a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Uppsala University, told Express.co.uk that his country was becoming a “capital of violence” – partly due to a wave of suspected criminals moving there.
According to official figures from the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Brå), the number of fatalities a year per million from gun violence is more than double the European average.
In 2017, there were 281 shootings in Sweden and by 2022 that number had grown to 391, 62 of which were fatal. According to the Office for National Statistics, in the UK there were 28 people killed by shooting in the year ending March 2022.
That means the Swedish rate of death by shooting was more than twice that of the UK, despite Sweden having a population less than a sixth the size.
Most startlingly, in 2022 the gun murder rate in Stockholm was around 30 times that of London, despite having a population of less than a million.
Multiple cars were torched in riots across Sweden in 2022 (Image: Getty)
Aftermath Of Gang-Related Bomb Blast In Sweden’s Capital
The aftermath of a gang-related bomb exploding in a residential area of the Swedish capital (Image: Getty)
SWEDEN-POLITICS-PROTEST
Protesters rioting in Malmo during the April 2022 wave of violence (Image: Getty)
Speaking to Express.co.uk from Berlin, Mr Adamson said that the main pockets of the violence in the Swedish capital aren’t found in the centre of the city, but in residential neighbourhoods.
“It’s terrifying. You can barely believe it,” he said. “That has mainly to do with the suburbs of Stockholm because some of these suburbs are extremely violent and so forth. So things are getting worse.”
A research paper he published in 2020 shows a link between the sharp uptick in crime and the marked increase in immigration into the country.
He found that in 2017, 58 percent of those “suspected of crime on reasonable grounds” had migrated to Sweden. However for murder, attempted murder and manslaughter the figures swelled to 73 percent. The corresponding data for robbery was 70 percent.
The 60-year-old explained: “Even though most migrants are law-abiding people… still the likelihood of a migrant – especially from the Middle East or Africa, especially below 50 years of age – committing a crime is much, much higher than for a Swedish person. These are just the facts.”
Quick to point out he was not a “populist” the academic, who has a PhD from the London School of Economics, noted: “This material is not political in the least and it’s just based on statistics.”
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Indeed, his findings are supported by a study by Brå. According to the official statistics, between 2015 and 2018, the percentage of native Swedes born to Swedish parents suspected of committing crime was 3.2 percent. However, that figure rose to eight percent for people born abroad, and climbed to more than 10 percent for people born in Sweden to two foreign parents.
Mr Adamson’s claim regarding the overrepresentation of migrants from the Middle East and Africa was backed up by the Brå too, which found: “The proportions suspected of offences are greatest among those born in the regions: West Asia, Central Asia, and different regions in Africa.”
Against this backdrop of migrant-driven violence, the Right in Sweden is on the march. After their meteoric rise and ascension into mainstream politics, the Sweden Democrats, some of whom’s founders were active neo-nazis, became the country’s second-largest party and is in a confidence and supply arrangement with the governing moderate coalition.
The party’s electoral support appears to be consistent and established. It is polling just shy of 19 percent of the vote, only a point less than it won in 2022, two years out from the next General Election.
However, despite Sweden Democrats’ expulsion of their far-right and fascist founder members in 2005, other actors in Swedish politics are becoming increasingly willing to employ the sort of violence synonymous with the fascist parties of mid-twentieth century Europe.
In April this year, masked attackers stormed an event being held by Sweden’s Left Party. The party held the event in Stockholm to discuss the rampant surge of the far-Right when a group of people burst into the room and laid waste to those inside.
Three people were taken to hospital following the incident, which saw the Left-wing activists defend themselves with smoke bombs and spray.
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Jimmie Åkesson, Sweden Democrats leader, has made the party the second-largest in the country (Image: Getty)
This incident is far from isolated. Research from the European Union published in 2019 found “Sweden has the highest number of extreme-right murders per capita, followed by Germany, mainly targeting immigrants, left-wing activists and the homeless”.
In 2022 there were several days of rioting in Stockholm, Malmö, Linköping and Norrköping after far-Right group Stram Kurs planned and held Qu’ran burning demonstrations across the country.
Mr Adamson, troubled by the direction of travel he sees in his native country, with spiralling violence and deepening social cleavages, reflected that the cliched image of “Sweden as a happy paradise” is “waning”.
“People don’t even pick it up as an introductory remark in a conversation or in an article, which is interesting in itself isn’t it,” he said.
“The right-wingers have responded and the general population has responded by running rightwards.”
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Blaming unmanaged migration over a prolonged period, Mr Adamson lambasted the politicians that oversaw that policy as having “betrayed their own heritage”.
He added: “Certainly Sweden’s problem is that we have been dominated by an almost-religious idealisation of things that the elites in our country know very little about, namely foreign cultures.
“This is here, it is real and [yet] we want to think about happy things. We want to think about the Eurovision song contest – which also these days is not a happy thing, by the way.”
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Fair play rural Ireland……Centre Right/Neo Libreal nobody’s A real vote for change!
What a surprise, PBP are not in the high nineties,
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