Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has “raised expectations by visiting” Northern Ireland that he will announce assistance in the face of “the ongoing cost-of-living crisis”.
Ms McDonald said more specifically, the raised expectation is around assistance with the soaring energy costs associated with home heating oil prices.
Almost two-thirds of homes in Northern Ireland use oil for heating.
Mr Starmer is in Northern Ireland this morning before he travels to Cork for the UK-Ireland summit with Taoiseach Micheál Martin.
Ms McDonald was speaking after Mr Starmer met Northern Ireland’s political leaders at the Culloden Hotel in Belfast this morning.
Mary Lou McDonald (centre) said Keir Starmer knows what the expectations are
“So Keir Starmer has come to Ireland, to Belfast to Cork. He has framed his visit in respect of cost of living pressures and specifically the price gouging, but also the runaway cost of home heating oil, and he needs to come up with an answer for families all across the north and I fully expect, and we’ve made this plain to him, that he will have something constructive and meaningful to say in that regard,” she said.
Ms McDonald said they “didn’t get an announcement or any form of detail from the British prime minister” and they did not “get any direct assurance”, but Ms McDonald said that Mr Starmer has been “left in no doubt what the expectations are”.
Mr Starmer has promised to crack down on companies in Northern Ireland which are “profiteering” from the fuel crisis triggered by the war in the Middle East.
After the meeting with Mr Starmer, DUP Leader Gavin Robinson said that he had asked Mr Starmer about making the Crisis and Resilience Fund, which is currently only available to councils in England, available in Northern Ireland.
Mr Robinson said this fund had been “put forward … as a solution, and yet it doesn’t apply to any of the devolved nations”.
“So I did raise that to them, and I’ve asked the Prime Minister to respond quickly as to how that fund, which has been rebranded and commences on the first of April, can and will be used to support people here in Northern Ireland,” Mr Robinson said.
Assembly members have also disagreed on the extent to which an £81m fund to support electricity consumers can be used to assist consumers in the current crisis.
Mr Robinson was critical that the Sinn Féin Minister for the Economy of Northern Ireland Caoimhe Archibald had not done more to activate this fund.
In a statement issued yesterday, Ms Archibald said that the funding was to be spent over three years and “cannot make its way to consumers until the Westminster Parliament amends the Energy Prices Act 2022”.
But Mr Robinson said there was “a refusal” on the part of Ms Archibald “to accept that it’s there” and “a refusal to accept that resource will be available to protect people in Northern Ireland”.
Mr Starmer is meeting political party leaders in Belfast before visiting a community centre.
Delighted to be at the joint British-Irish #StPatricksDay reception in Belfast yesterday evening, along with PM Keir Starmer & Secretary of State Hilary Benn. Wonderful to celebrate with so many cultural, community, political, business & education partners. pic.twitter.com/gz7PEWVXQD
— Helen McEntee TD (@HMcEntee) March 12, 2026
He will spend under 24 hours in Cork, during which he will attend a meeting with the Taoiseach and senior Irish and British ministers tomorrow morning.
It is the second UK-Ireland summit, following an inaugural gathering in Liverpool last March.
At that stage, Mr Martin and Mr Starmer committed themselves to a programme of co-operation between the two countries, called UK-Ireland 2030.
The programme involves closer working relationships across trade, energy, maritime security, emergency planning and cultural connections.
This summit, over today and tomorrow, will take stock on progress to date, as well as setting further goals for the rest of the year and on to 2030.
Mr Starmer is due arrive in Cork with four of his senior cabinet ministers just before 5pm.
He will be met by the Taoiseach.
Together, they will meet business leaders at a round table event in the city centre in the evening, before hearing from members of the Ireland-UK Youth Forum and attending a civic and cultural reception later.
A two-hour plenary meeting, involving Mr Martin, Mr Starmer and senior Irish and British ministers, will take place tomorrow morning.
The UK is Ireland’s second largest trading partner and over the past decade annual bilateral trade has increased by 107% to €129 billion.
Ireland is the UK’s sixth largest trading partner, while Irish companies employ in the region of 150,000 people in the UK.
Speaking in Cork ahead of the summit, Mr Martin said the programme of co-operation agreed between the two leaders last year was now beginning to deliver.
“Today we will mark the progress on what has been achieved over the course of the past year and reaffirm our commitment to deepen and broaden further the co-operation, friendship and partnership between Ireland and the UK this year and out to 2030,” Mr Martin said.
“This summit takes place against an uncertain global backdrop and will be an opportunity to take stock of international issues, including the concerning situation in the Middle East and Gulf Region, and in Ukraine. Each day we see how international events can impact also on our domestic ambitions and daily lives, as well as on global security.
“Over the course of the summit, we will discuss how we can strengthen competitiveness and resilience and reduce the cost of living, harness the potential of our shared seas, while protecting our marine environment, deliver essential infrastructure at pace and scale, and ensure energy affordability and energy security across Ireland and the UK.”