Mary Lou McDonald on Stormont's 'Fresh Start' agreement

THE NEGOTIATIONS have been difficult, with the two governments clearly on the side of austerity and against the rights of victims of the conflict to full disclosure.

Nevertheless, we have secured additional monies for the Executive which will help minimise some of the worst excesses of British Government austerity.

We succeeded in securing £585million over the next four years to support those in need and working families. This is an increase from the Stormont House Agreement that had funds of £560million over six years.

We have secured in excess of £500million of additional funding to support the unique needs of a society emerging from decades of conflict and division, and an economy that faces the legacy of under-investment and partition.

The negotiations were a direct result of the crisis created by the economic and political policies of the British and Irish governments.

The intransigence of the British Government and its determination to defend its security apparatus by denying victims access to truth means that the legacy issues arising from the conflict cannot be resolved at this time.

The Conservative Party – in moves straight out of the Fine Gael/Labour Government playbook – wants to implement water charges and increase student fees in the North. These are 'Thatcher's Children'. They believe the North of Ireland is “as British as Finchley”. Margaret Thatcher was wrong in the 1980s and David Cameron and George Osborne's Tories are just as wrong today.

For its part, the Irish Government has failed to honour its commitments during these negotiations and has failed to act as anything other than a junior partner to the British Government throughout this process.

In economic terms, Fine Gael and the Irish Labour Party made common cause with the British Conservative Party in their relentless pursuit of austerity.

Like the Irish Government, the Tories have used the cover of recession to cut public services, to cut benefits, and to plan further swingeing cuts to supports for working families.

The imposition of these polices in Britain and in the South has seen a rise in inequality and poverty and a growth in homelessness and food banks. The threads of the welfare safety net are being cut one by one.

Austerity is wrong; it has failed the test of time and been abandoned across Europe.

Nor has Tory policy any mandate in Ireland.

Austerity is clearly the price of the Union.

The policies of the Tories are unfair, fundamentally undemocratic and economically counter-productive. Sinn Féin believes the campaign against the cuts must continue and must be won.

The political approach of the two governments to the North has sustained the crisis. Their failure to honour previous agreements – and in particular to address the past – has undermined the political process.

Their inaction has encouraged those opposed to power-sharing and equality.

Some parties and elements of British Intelligence have used the recent killings of Kevin McGuigan and Gerard Davison to destabilise the political institutions.

These two families deserve our support and deserve justice. There is no place for these activities in any community. However, it is wrong that some sought to exploit these killings for political and electoral advantage.

There are still active and armed unionist paramilitary groups and so-called dissident republican groups, some of them using political rhetoric as a cover for criminality. There is no place in our community for armed groups and no place for criminality anywhere in Ireland.

Sinn Féin will not and does not agree with the policies of the two governments. We reject the idea that cutting supports and public services is good for the economy and our citizens.

Sinn Féin stands for investment in growth and prosperity, for fairness and equality, and for supports and services for those in need.

This is the context in which Sinn Féin entered the talks.

The Executive does not have the resources to meet the scale of the cuts being imposed by the Tories from Westminster. People in the community, our families and our neighbours will be worse off because of Tory policies and their welfare legislation.

Nor does the Executive have the full suite of powers to manage and grow the economy or develop fair taxation.

Sinn Féin believes the continued operation of the political institutions is the best way to build this campaign, maintain control over our public services, grow the economy and support those most in need.

There will be others who disagree with that approach.

Some might call for the institutions to collapse with the return of direct rule.

Do those who advocate resigning from the institutions really want to let the Tory party impose water charges, increase student fees and prescription charges, end free travel for pensioners, impose privatisation and slash public services?

Sinn Féin will not hand over the political institutions and hard-won agreements to the Tories and a compliant Irish Government.

We will continue to campaign against austerity and to support the vulnerable. We will campaign for the return of powers to grow our economy and end the Union.

The economic policies of the Irish and British governments are driven by right-wing ideology.

Their policies for dealing with the legacy of the past are firmly rooted in colonialism.

The continued failure by the British Government to come clean on their Dirty War in Ireland has set back the process of reconciliation and healing.

Sinn Féin had agreed with the other parties and the two governments at Stormont House last year a set of interlinked mechanisms that would support victims, provide full disclosure and promote reconciliation.

The British Government has put the need to cover up for their agents, army, police and political establishment during the conflict above the rights of the families of victims and the cause of reconciliation. They have walked away from the previous agreement and sought to develop a veto on information disclosure under the guise of ‘national security’.

It should be remembered that these are events which in many instances happened 30 to 40 years ago and pose no threat to ‘national security’ in any form. This has everything to do with controlling and curtailing the disclosure of information and nothing to do with ‘national security’.

The current Irish Government pays lip service to the rights of victims while failing to hold the British Government to account for the killing of Irish citizens.

The Irish Government has allowed the British Government to walk away from its responsibility to the families of Dublin/Monaghan and Ballymurphy, to the family of Martin Doherty, and the family of Pat Finucane, among others. They behave as a former colony rather than as an equal and joint partner with the British Government.

An agreement to progress the past has not been possible at this time as both governments have failed to honour their responsibilities.

Sinn Féin will continue to stand up to support the vulnerable, working families, our economy and our public services. We are committed to resolving the issues of the past, supporting victims and promoting reconciliation and healing.

We need a real discussion on the future – a discussion on the best way forward for our economy and our people, a democratic way forward in which the decisions facing our citizens, our public services and our economy are made by an accountable government.

It is clear that the Union and partition has failed.

The real safeguard against the Tories in power in Dublin and Westminster is ending once and for all the Union with Britain and building a progressive republican government delivering on the promises made in the Proclamation of the Irish Republic in 1916.