Prime Minister Boris Johnson has met with leaders in Stormont and called on Northern Ireland’s restored government to ‘deliver for the people’.
The Prime Minister and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar met with Northern Ireland leaders at Stormont Castle.
The Prime Minister and Taoiseach met with First Minister Arlene Foster, from the DUP, and her Sinn Fein deputy, Michelle O’Neill, after the Assembly was re-established for the first time in three years.
The rival parties agreed a deal on Friday to restore the power-sharing executive which previously collapsed in 2017.
Johnson said: “I just want to say how grateful I am to all the parties, everybody here in Northern Ireland for the way they have compromised the way they have worked together to get Stormont up and running again,” The Prime Minister said.
“It’s shown a willingness to trust each other and to set aside differences that I think is absolutely commendable and wonderful to see…Now is the chance for the government, the executive assembly of Northern Ireland to deliver for the people of Northern Ireland and to deliver on the priorities of the people.
“And that is above all improving people’s health care, making sure we have fantastic schools and making sure that our streets are safe.”
Mr Johnson continued: “We are making huge commitments to Northern Ireland.
“I want to make it absolutely clear that we in the UK government will now work with this revived government in Northern Ireland to ensure that we deliver on that potential through better infrastructure…better education and of course technology.
“And using those three things to bring our whole UK together so that all four nations of the UK above all and Northern Ireland benefit from the prosperity and the growth we intend to deliver.”
Mr Johnson quoted former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s speech shortly before the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 when he said: “It’s a great moment, never mind the hand of history on my shoulder I see the hand of the future.
“I see the hand of the future beckoning us all forward and I hope with good will and compromise and hard work on all sides it’ll be a very bright future indeed.”
