Ahern and Blair map out rescue plan for Northern peace process

BERTIE AHERN and British Prime Minister Tony Blair are mapping out a rescue plan for the Northern peace process, as it now seems inevitable the power-sharing government will collapse.

The British Government is expected to move early next week to suspend the Northern institutions ahead of Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble’s deadline for pulling out of the Assembly.

Heading into a crunch meeting with Mr Blair last night, the Taoiseach said he was against the suspension of the institutions, but appeared to reluctantly accept that scenario was now inevitable.

Without trust between the parties, the institutions cannot work, Mr Ahern said. “If that trust is temporarily gone, it is the obligation on the two governments under the Good Friday Agreement, and all the efforts that the prime minister and I, and my respective colleagues, have put into this to manage the situation in the interests of the people of Northern Ireland and in the interests of people on the island of Ireland,” he said.

Mr Ahern and Mr Blair left Downing Street after two hours of talks without making a statement other than saying talks with all the parties will continue.

As the return of direct rule from London drew closer, British Government sources said Mr Blair was considering appointing extra ministers from Westminster to the Northern Ireland Office to take over the running of the 10 Stormont Executive departments.

Mr Trimble, who meets Mr Ahern in Dublin tomorrow, continued to pile pressure on the British Government to punish Sinn Féin over allegations that republicans infiltrated the Northern Ireland Office, rather than suspending the institutions.

The heat will be turned up on Sinn Féin today when a party delegation meets Mr Blair in London. It is anticipated that Mr Blair will again press for an end to IRA activity, after he warned republicans yesterday that there can only be one democratic path.

Earlier yesterday, SDLP leader Mark Durkan urged Mr Blair to do everything possible to minimise the damage to the Good Friday Agreement. He also confirmed that his party would not support either a government or Ulster Unionist motion in the Assembly to remove Sinn Féin ministers from office.

Also opposing suspension, Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams called on Mr Blair to act as a guarantor of the Good Friday Agreement and still insisted there were no grounds for his party’s ministers to be expelled.

PUP leader David Irvine called on Mr Blair and Mr Ahern not to get involved in the latest crisis.