Sinn Féin ministers facing no-confidence vote after Drumcree dispute

The first minister will face a no-confidence vote at Stormont on Monday over her handling of the Drumcree parading dispute.

The motion against Michelle O'Neill and three other Sinn Féin ministers will be debated after it received the backing of unionist parties last week.

However the attempt to oust them will fail as it requires cross-community support from a majority of both unionists and nationalists in the assembly.

It comes amid a major political row over a planned Orange Order march in Portadown, County Armagh.

O'Neill and other senior Sinn Féin politicians have been heavily criticised by unionists for joining protests which have blocked the parade from passing along the mainly nationalist Garvaghy Road.

Police are investigating the demonstrations in a "large-scale" criminal inquiry.

O'Neill has defended her actions, saying she was "proud" to stand with the residents and adding that "when the law is wrong I will stand firmly against it".

The exclusion motions have also been submitted against John O'Dowd, Caoimhe Archibald and Liz Kimmins.

O'Dowd, who is also the finance minister, told BBC Radio Ulster's Good Morning Ulster programme on Monday that it was not Sinn Féin who brought the Drumcree dispute "back to the table".

"Those who seek to drag us backwards need to be stood up against."

He added that he will go to Stormont to work with other parties.

"I am seeking engagements around the budget, I want to work with parties to make a better society for everyone."

The no-confidence motions were tabled by Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) assembly member Timothy Gaston, who has branded O'Neill the "first minister of lawlessness".

The motions gained the required 30 signatures with the backing of assembly members from the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP).

Speaking to BBC Radio Ulster's Good Morning Ulster programme, the TUV leader, Jim Allister, said: "Let me be absolutely clear, of course this debate today is not going to succeed because the absurd system whereby it needs cross community support, but that accentuates the pressure on the DUP to be seen to do something because as things stand lawbreakers are sitting in our executive."

Motions of no-confidence in the assembly are not binding even if a majority of MLAs vote in favour of them, and cannot automatically force a minister from office.

Ahead of the debate at Stormont, the leader of the opposition, the SDLP's Matthew O'Toole said politicians were entitled to express their views but needed to move forward once proceedings had concluded.

O'Toole said attention should then return to issues affecting people across Northern Ireland, adding: "If they work in the public sector, they might be waiting on a pay rise. They might have a family member stuck on a waiting list."