Mr McGuinness dismissed the SDLP's claims that it would be entitled to appoint one of their MLAs as the new justice minister using the d'Hondt mechanism.

The Sinn Féin leader accused the SDLP of "not living in the real world."

"The reality is that if this is done by d'Hondt then the SDLP would have the fourth choice. If we were to accept the SDLP's argument, it's certain that the DUP would chose this department and we would have a unionist minister in charge of justice," he said.

Mr McGuinness continued: "Everyone knows that the DUP will not go for d'Hondt. The argument put by the SDLP is nonsensical,"

The Deputy First Minister also said Sinn Féin would support an SDLP appointee becoming justice minister if it was possible. "If there was a chance to have an SDLP justice minister, Sinn Féin would support that in the morning but there is no chance of that happening." he said.

Mr McGuinness added: "I believe that the SDLP behaved disgracefully during the discussions on the process for appointing a justice minister."

Discussing the SDLP's criticisms of how Executive business is conducted, Mr McGuinness said: "People seem to ignore that I have as many difficulties with the Executive as anyone else."