Martin McGuinness, Sinn Fein Official, Quits Northern Ireland Government, Setting Off Shake-Up

By SINEAD O’SHEA


SINEAD O’SHEA

Sinn Fein Official in Northern Ireland Resigns

Martin McGuinness resigned as deputy first minister to protest what he called the mishandling of a government program.

By THE NEW YORK TIMES on January 9, 2017. Photo by Charles Mcquillan/Getty Images.

DUBLIN — The top Catholic official in Northern Ireland’s power-sharing government abruptly resigned on Monday, plunging the territory into political uncertainty and adding to Britain’s complications as it plans to leave the European Union.

The official, Martin McGuinness, stepped down as deputy first minister to protest what he called the mishandling of a program that subsidizes the use of renewable energy to heat buildings.

Mr. McGuinness said he would not nominate a replacement, a decision that effectively sets off an election for the Northern Ireland Assembly, as it will end the current power-sharing agreement between Mr. McGuinness’s Catholic Sinn Fein party and the Democratic Unionist Party, which represents Protestants and is led by Arlene Foster, the first minister.

Under the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which brought an end to the decades-long sectarian strife known as the Troubles, Catholics and Protestants share governance of the region, along with the British government.

If a new deputy first minister is not nominated within seven days, the secretary of state for Northern Ireland, who is appointed by London, must call an election, to take place in six weeks. The next election had not been scheduled until 2021.

Sinn Fein had been heavily critical of Ms. Foster, who set up the renewable heating incentive program in 2012, when she was minister for enterprise, trade and investment. (She became first minister early last year.)

The program was intended to encourage businesses and other nonhousehold users to switch to renewable energy from fossils fuels. But it has been dogged by problems. For one thing, claimants could receive more money if they had burned more fuel, which led some to install heaters where none had been in use previously. There were also allegations of corruption linked to Ms. Foster and her advisers, and an investigation was started early last year.

So far, the program is 490 million pounds, or nearly $600 million, over budget, and the shortfall will be have to paid out of the block grant allocated to Northern Ireland each year from Britain’s Treasury.

Mr. McGuinness’s resignation added another wrinkle to the complicated preparations for Britain’s departure from the European Union, or “Brexit.”

The decision to withdraw from the bloc, made in a referendum last June, raised concerns that security checks could be reimposed along the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, jeopardizing a crucial aspect of the Good Friday Agreement.

The reimposition of a “hard” border would be likely to antagonize Catholics, who have historically wished for the unification of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Leaving the bloc could also harm trade between the two.

An early election could provide an opportunity for the people of Northern Ireland — where 56 percent of voters favored remaining in the European Union — to protest the policies of Britain’s prime minister, Theresa May, who has set a March deadline for starting the process of withdrawal.