DUP ‘ready to share power with SF’

IAN PAISLEY’S Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) is ready to share power with Sinn Féin, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has said.

Speaking after the annual Wolfe Tone commemoration at Bodenstown yesterday, Mr Ahern said he believed the DUP would be prepared to enter into a power-sharing agreement with Sinn Féin in a restored Northern Assembly.

Mr Ahern said he believed if agreement was reached on decommissioning, an end to paramilitarism and co-operation in policing and justice, the DUP would agree to share power. “If we get agreement on these issues, then I think it is entirely reasonable to expect the DUP to power share with Sinn Féin,” he said.

Asked if the DUP were prepared to share power, Mr Ahern said both he and Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern believed that was the case. “The negotiations in recent weeks would lead us to both believe that that’s the case.”

Mr Ahern also indicated he would be prepared to consider certain small changes to the Good Friday Agreement - a template previously considered to be cast in stone. “We have been clear and consistent that the fundamentals of the Good Friday Agreement cannot be renegotiated. That is not to suggest that some sensible changes in the operation of the Agreement cannot be accommodated....That accommodation will not be made at the expense of its fundamental principles,” he said.

However, Mr Ahern warned that failure to reach agreement in the next few weeks would delay the process. “The coming weeks represent a window of opportunity to copper-fasten peace and stability. This opportunity must not be lost. Otherwise we risk having restoration of the institutions deferred for some considerable time.”

But Mr Ahern stressed no such accommodation could be reached until the IRA gave up its arms. “With the Good Friday and its implementation, there remains no conceivable justification for maintaining paramilitary armies,” he said.

Mr Ahern was also questioned on the release of the killers of detective Gerry McCabe. “If there is agreement then that is an outstanding issue that the Irish Government have to deal with,” he said.