The UK government has announced it intends to extend the deadline for calling a fresh election in Northern Ireland and cut the pay of Stormont Assembly members
"The one thing that everyone agrees on is that we must try and find a way through this current impasse - where I have a legal duty to call an election that few want and all say will change nothing," Mr Heaton-Harris told MPs.
He continued:"People across Northern Ireland are frustrated that MLAs continue to draw a full salary whilst not performing all of the duties they were elected to do.Mr Heaton-Harris also confirmed he will give extra powers to Stormont civil servants to enable them to run the region's public services as the impasse continues.
While in the Commons, DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson told Mr Heaton-Harris that while courage, understanding, and compromise are"good words", what is needed is"a solution that sees the institutions restored on the basis that Northern Ireland is an integral part of the United Kingdom". But Sinn Fein vice-president Michelle O'Neill said the uncertainty over an election was not good enough.
SDLP leader Colum Eastwood welcomed the move to cut MLA pay, saying the DUP"have no justifiable reason for hanging about while people's homes get colder and their cupboards get emptier".
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