Power-sharing opportunity must be seized: Ahern

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern warned yesterday that the opportunity for power-sharing in the North must be seized this year because it may not arise again for some time.

Next month’s gathering of the Northern Assembly members - for the first time since it was suspended in November 2002 - also coincides with the eighth anniversary of the ratification of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement by voters north and south of the Border.

Mr Ahern said the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Féin are now the largest parties representing their respective communities and had a heavy responsibility to deliver on their mandates.