London resumes direct rule of Northern Ireland today

Political Editor

Northern Ireland Secretary Dr John Reid will take on two extra Ministers, bringing his team to four. These will share out the 10 Government jobs handled up to now by the fledgling Northern Ireland Government.

Under the terms of the suspension, the Northern Ireland ministers and Assembly members will have their salaries cut by one-third. They will still have the use of their Stormont offices for constituency business, for the time being at least.

The suspension will cover the 10 member executive of the suspended Government and the 106-member Assembly. Officials close to the process last night stressed that other major components of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement remain intact.

These include the Human Rights Commission and the Equality Commission. The Policing Board, which for technical reasons also had to be suspended yesterday, is expected to be re-constituted as quickly as possible.

The suspension also covers the North-South Ministerial Council from which the Ulster Unionist Ministers withdrew three weeks ago. But Taoiseach Bertie Ahern is very hopeful the Dublin Government can retain a role in the territory's administration through the so-called British-Irish Council.

That body is a forum for consultation between the Dublin and London Governments but it has been little used in the four and a half years since the Good Friday Agreement was penned.

Officials expect the British-Irish Council will now become the vehicle through which London consults with Dublin on Northern Ireland issues. It is also hoped it will become a forum for consultation with all the North's parties in efforts to get the administration back on track.

Dr Reid and Foreign Affairs Minister, Brian Cowen may meet early next week at the Council level. It is probable Mr Ahern and British Prime Minister Tony Blair will meet in the margins of an EU leaders' summit in Brussels on October 24 and 25.

The Dublin Government has declared its determination to work all the existing elements of the Good Friday Agreement. Most optimism for progress centres on changes to the Northern Ireland Policing legislation.

These changes are expected to be enacted by the British Parliament late this year or early in 2003. It is hoped these changes may encourage Sinn Féin to abandon its boycott of the police supervisory boards.

Officials on both sides say the main focus now must be on trying to rebuild trust. They must address Unionists' fears that Republicans have no intention of swiftly standing down the IRA. Also to be tackled are Republican concerns that Unionists are not committed to power-sharing and are indifferent to Loyalist paramilitary violence.