Michelle O'Neill as Stormont’s First Minister is a 'historic moment of change'

Sinn Féin spokesperson on Finance and TD for Donegal, Pearse Doherty, has said Stormont’s first nationalist First Minister provides “a historic moment of change.”

Michelle O’Neill has pledged to work with unionists to build a better future for Northern Ireland. The appointment of the Sinn Fein vice president provided a moment of history on the day the powersharing institutions returned after a two-year hiatus.

“This is a historic moment of change,” Doherty posted. For the first time we have a Sinn Féin First Minister. In Michelle O’Neill we have an opportunity to deliver for workers and families across our society and we are determined to deliver.”

DUP MLA Emma Little-Pengelly was nominated as deputy First Minister. Taking up the post, she said she and Ms O’Neill come from “very different backgrounds”, but for her part, she will work “tirelessly to ensure that we can deliver for all in Northern Ireland”.

The two top jobs in the ministerial executive wield equal power and responsibility, but the elevation of a republican to the office of first minister, by virtue of Sinn Fein becoming the region’s largest political party in the 2022 Assembly election, is undoubtedly a significant symbolic moment for Northern Ireland.

The DUP, the largest unionist party in the region, has agreed to the recall of the political institutions on the back of its deal on post-Brexit trade with the UK Government, which party leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson says has effectively removed the so-called Irish Sea trading border on goods remaining within the UK.

On Thursday, the Government fast-tracked two pieces of legislation contained in the agreement through the House of Commons, opening the way for the Assembly to return on Saturday.

The proceedings commenced with the process of nominating a speaker, with former DUP leader Edwin Poots elected to the role. Addressing the chamber after her appointment was confirmed and she affirmed the pledge of office, Ms O’Neill said the restoration of the institutions marked a “moment of equality and progress”.

“A new opportunity to work and grow together,” she said. “Confident that wherever we come from, whatever our aspirations, we can and must build our future together.”

Ms O’Neill said the public were relying on each of us to act in their best interests and to serve our whole community in good faith.

“We must make powersharing work because collectively, we are charged with leading and delivering for all our people, for every community,” she said. “In common cause we must make life better for workers, families, communities. To create hope and opportunity.”

Ms O’Neill urged all MLAs to be “respectful of each other”.

“The days of second-class citizenship are long gone,” she said. “Today confirms that they are never coming back. As an Irish republican I pledge co-operation and genuine honest effort with those colleagues who are British, of a unionist tradition and who cherish the Union.

“This is an assembly for all – Catholic, Protestant and dissenter. Despite our different outlooks and views on the future constitutional position, the public rightly demands that we co-operate, deliver and work together. We must build trust and confidence in our ability to do that. That will require courage and ambition not just from us who are elected but from the public. We can all invest in this and the more of us that do the better the chance it has.”