Agreement must survive, says Durkan
Following talks in Downing Street with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Mr Durkan acknowledged that the power-sharing government in Stormont may have to be suspended following the allegations of an IRA spy ring operating within the Northern Ireland Government.
However, Mr Durkan, who is the province’s Deputy First Minister, said that it was essential that the Agreement was kept alive even if the political institutions were suspended. “In terms of what happens to the institutions next week, if there is suspension we want to make it very clear that the institutions of the Agreement will have been injured but they have not been crippled,” he said.
Mr Durkan said the SDLP would not support a motion to exclude Sinn Féin from the power-sharing executive as Northern Ireland First Minister David Trimble is demanding.
However, he also acknowledged that the Ulster Unionists could not be expected to go on sitting alongside Sinn Féin in the executive in the current circumstances.
