Stormont assembly members could have their pay stopped as the Northern Ireland secretary said the region was “on the glide path” towards direct rule from Westminster.

Devolved government in Northern Ireland has been on hold since the collapse of the assembly in January.

But hopes of a breakthrough this week were dashed when James Brokenshire told MPs that the chances of power sharing being restored were “not positive”, with talks hitting the buffers in the past few days.



Brokenshire told the Northern Ireland select committee on Wednesday that members of the local assembly accepted their £49,500 a year could not continue to be paid if they were not doing the job they were elected to do.

“They acknowledge that for them to be paid at the rate that they are, not being able to do the job that they do, is simply unsustainable,” he said.

He told the committee that “time is running out” for devolution and warned there would be direct rule by stealth.

He said talks had been going well but stalled again last week with the Democratic Unionist party and Sinn Féin failing to agree terms about legal recognition for the Irish language.

“We thought there was momentum building towards that [breakthrough on power sharing], but that did alter last week.

“If I had given evidence to this committee last week I might have indicated some momentum, more progress. That progress stalled at the end of last week,” he told the select committee.

“Unless there is a renewed spirit of compromise then the outlook for imminent resolution is not positive. Time is running out. The prospects do not look positive at this time.”

Brokenshire has set 6 November as the deadline for an agreement to be reached before the UK government will intervene and set a budget for Northern Ireland.

He told MPs that for Westminster to set a budget for Northern Ireland was “significant and serious”. Although it did not denote direct rule, he said the move would put the region on “a glide path to greater and greater UK government intervention”.

Brokenshire added: “Setting a budget is a significant step along that glide path and if you do that, the landing gear starts to come down and the lights go on. We can’t go on much longer with the way we are. That I say reluctantly … but time is marching on and I’m not going to pretend otherwise.”

Northern Ireland has been without devolved government for almost a year after power sharing between the DUP and Sinn Féin collapsed in January after 10 years of local rule in Stormont.

Brokenshire said he would continue to support all efforts to find a way to break the impasse but it was “profoundly in all our interests” for the parties to reach a solution. He said political impasses were part of the pattern of history in Ireland and parties had to return to the “spirit of compromise” of the past.

“The best possible outcome is for locally elected politicians to make decisions and be held accountable by a locally elected assembly – that is the bedrock of the Belfast agreement,” he said.

Power sharing collapsed after Sinn Féin walked out over a botched energy scheme known as the “cash for ash” scandal which has cost the taxpayer £500m. But the current impasse now centres on broader issues about the culture and language of the nationalist and unionist communities, with Sinn Féin demanding a standalone Irish language act. The DUP is willing to legislate but only if the law includes protection for the Ulster Scots language.