UK PM Johnson to meet new Northern Ireland executive, Irish PM

LONDON (Reuters) – Prime Minister Boris Johnson will visit Northern Ireland on Monday to meet leaders of the British province’s newly-formed executive and his Irish counterpart, Leo Varadkar.

Northern Ireland’s main parties on Saturday formed a power-sharing government, ending a three-year standoff that threatened a key part of the region’s 1998 peace settlement.

Johnson will use the visit to press the need for public service reform after years of political stalemate.

“I look forward to meeting with the new executive and hearing about their plans for the future – including driving forward much needed reforms to public services and resolving the current health strike,” Johnson said in a statement ahead of the visit.

Britain had promised more money to help Northern Ireland fund public services if it could get its devolved administration, known as the Assembly, up and running again.

Johnson will meet First Minister Arlene Foster and Deputy First Minister Michelle O’Neill, his office said. The assembly’s two leaders will also meet Varadkar, according to his office.

Before a 1998 peace deal, Northern Ireland suffered three decades of sectarian violence between Irish nationalist militants seeking a united Ireland and pro-British loyalists defending the region’s place in the United Kingdom.

The so-called Good Friday Agreement established the Assembly – a devolved legislature with a power-sharing leadership which has administrative responsibility for the province and can make new laws in areas such as the economy, finance and healthcare.

That arrangement collapsed in 2017 when Sinn Fein, the largest Irish nationalist party, withdrew, saying it was not being treated equally by the pro-British Democratic Unionist Party.

Last week the British and Irish governments helped broker a deal restore the Assembly.