Leo Varadkar and Rishi Sunak met, but did not appear in public together to mark the return of devolved government to Northern Ireland.
The two leaders did meet privately in Belfast and held separate engagements with Stormont’s political leaders, posing separately for photographs with the first and deputy first ministers.
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Irish News columnist Brian Feeney believes deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly’s lack of a personal electoral mandate “reduces her credibility”.
The Lagan Valley MLA, who on Saturday accepted the DUP nomination to serve at the head of the executive alongside Michelle O’Neill, was co-opted into the assembly to replace Sir Jeffrey Donaldson within days of the May 2022 election.
She is the first co-optee to hold the first or deputy first minister’s post, however, two previous executive ministers have taken up their roles without a personal electoral mandate.
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Industrial action is to continue until an acceptable offer on public sector pay is made, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) has said.
Public sector workers, including nurses, teachers, police staff and civil servants among others, staged one of the biggest joint strikes in Northern Ireland’s recent history last month over pay.
Pay awards for public sector workers have not been made during the effective collapse of devolved government over the last two years.
ICTU assistant general secretary Gerry Murphy met the new Stormont Finance Minister Caoimhe Archibald earlier today.
He said it is “clear” that the money is now available to settle pay claims across the entire public sector.
Meanwhile, transport workers say they will suspend strike action planned for February 15 to give Stormont leaders “space to make an improved pay offer”.
In a joint statement, the transport unions – GMB, Unite and Siptu – said given the potential for the new Infrastructure Minister John O’Dowd to “move quickly and offer workers a pay increase”, they said it was “unanimously agreed by all three unions” to reschedule the date of the next, planned strike action – which was provisionally set for February 15 – until the end of the month.
Yesterday, Health Minister Robin Swann said he intended to prioritise pay settlements for staff and to resolve industrial action.
“I want to see pay negotiations being initiated without delay.
“Consequently I have written to the trade unions inviting them to early discussions.
“Staff are the bedrock of the health service and they are entitled to proper remuneration for the vital work they do.”
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First Minister Michelle O’Neill says additional funding is needed for public services in Northern Ireland.
“The offer that has been put on the table sounds good on the face of it, but whenever you break it down into the details there’s a lot more to be done here.
“If we’re going to be successful politically we need to also have the resources to deliver good public services."
Ms O'Neill said she and deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly had "loudly and clearly" conveyed the message to the prime minister this morning.
“We know we’ve a lot of work to do but we need the Treasury to be engaged with us because for many, many years we have been under-funded, we now are trying to fix that, we want to transform our health service.
“We have an in-tray as long as your arm in terms of the issues we need to deal with.”
On Sunday, Michelle O’Neill was asked about Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald’s comments that unity is “within touching distance”.
We are entering a “decade of opportunity”, the First Minister said, where all sorts of change seems possible.
But she was also at pains to stress that it was possible to do two things at once:
“We can have powersharing, we can make it stable, we can work together every day in terms of public services while we also pursue our equally legitimate aspirations.”
On the unionist side, everyone from Sir Jeffrey Donaldson to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak criticised Ms O’Neill for having the audacity to venture near the unity question.
That is not a sustainable position for a place which can only work where legitimate constitutional aspirations are able to be expressed and debated.
Those who wish to remain in the UK must be able to make their arguments. But voices for Irish unity will not be silenced just because it might perturb some unionists.
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Despite observations that Michelle O'Neill and Emma Little-Pengelly did not greet British prime minister Rishi Sunak with a kiss despite doing so for Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, a warm embrace between Ms O'Neill and Mr Sunak was captured by Downing Street photographer Simon Walker
British prime minister Rishi Sunak has said he "deeply regretted" the Republic's decision to take an interstate case against the British government's new Legacy Act.
Mr Sunak and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar met at Stormont as they marked the return of the powersharing institutions.
The prime minister said: "Ireland is always going to be a close and valued partner and friend of the United Kingdom. That's always been the case and will remain the case.
"Whilst we deeply regret the decision that the Irish government made on legacy, we disagree with it, but it is important we continue to co-operate where we can.
"I met the Taoiseach today, I spoke to him last week. I also was the first prime minister to attend the British-Irish Council in over a decade. I regularly speak to him and I also have an enormous amount of respect for all strands of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement."
Mr Sunak added: "I also congratulated him on Ireland's rugby victory while I was at it."
In the wake of the 'clock cleaning' row, here are some previous comments from Edwin Poots that have hit the headlines, including:
In 2020, on the spread of coronavirus he said the “difference between nationalist areas and unionist areas is around six to one”.
When health minister in 2012, he defended his ban on donations from gay people, saying it should be extended to people who have sex "with somebody in Africa or sex with prostitutes".
The door of the SDLP remains open to MLA Justin McNulty who was suspended, leader Colum Eastwood has said.
Mr McNulty attended the historic sitting of the Stormont assembly on Saturday, which saw Michelle O’Neill become the first nationalist first minister to serve alongside deputy first minister Emma Little-Pengelly.
However, he left Parliament Buildings before the end of the sitting and missed his party colleague Matthew O’Toole being confirmed as leader of the opposition.
Mr McNulty left early to attend a match in Co Wicklow of Laois GAA team, which he manages.
Mr Eastwood said today: “I expect 100% from all my MLAs, I won’t accept 50% from one of them but we’re very clear the door is open for Justin to come back in if he wants, we’ve made a very generous offer to him but that’s on him and we’re ready and willing to listen.”